| 16. |
Bag with smack sent over — want to lose head? (8) |
|
KNAPSACK |
|
A charade of KNAPS, a reversal (‘sent over’) of SPANK (‘smack’) plus [l]ACK (‘want’) without its first letter (‘to lose head’). |
| 19. |
Turn one’s nose up at garbage (6) |
|
REFUSE |
|
Double definition. |
| 21. |
See 26 |
|
– |
|
See 26 |
| 22. |
Books in bundle missing the last book (6) |
|
LOLITA |
|
An envelope (‘in’) of LIT (literature, ‘books’) in LOA[d] (‘bundle’) ‘missing the last’. |
| 24. |
Nightmare, describing Greece originally (6) |
|
HELLAS |
|
A charade of HELL (‘nightmare’) plus AS (‘describing’). |
| 25. |
Weird doctor yearning after smelly guts (8) |
|
ELDRITCH |
|
A charade of EL (‘smELly guts’) plus DR (‘doctor’) plus ITCH (‘yearning’). |
| 26,21. |
Artist framing “Endless Time” and “Winter Vehicle”, not quite a surrealist (4,8) |
|
RENE MAGRITTE |
|
An envelope (‘framing’) of ENEM[y] (‘endless time’ – time the enemy) in RA (‘artist’) plus GRITTE[r] (‘winter vehicle’) ‘not quite’. |
| 27,8. |
As utter misery beginning to advance, use ill-conceived cuts (9,8) |
|
AUSTERITY MEASURES |
|
An anagram (‘ill-conceived’) of ‘as utter misery’ plus A (‘beginning to Advance’) plus ‘use’. |
|
|
|
|
|
Down |
|
|
| 1. |
Cap in hand over foreign money, a beast picking over carcasses (5) |
|
HYENA |
|
My first reaction was that there was far too much clue for such a small answer, but it is a charade of H (‘cap in Hand’) plus YEN (‘foreign money’) plus ‘a’. |
| 2. |
One liberating another snooker player’s assistant shortly before snooker player? (7) |
|
RESCUER |
|
A charade of RES[t] (‘snooker player’s assistant’) cut (‘shortly’) plus CUER (‘snooker player’). I remember a crossword not so long ago that required the name of a famous (to some) snooker player, and I was relieved not to have the trouble of looking up him, or his like, again. |
| 3. |
It’s here or there, perhaps (5) |
|
THREE |
|
An anagram (‘perhaps’) of ‘there’, for the number of the light. |
| 4,22. |
Private meeting place where parent and child, one an idiot, say, raised (7,5) |
|
MASONIC LODGE |
|
A charade of MA (‘parent’) plus SON (‘child’) plus I (‘one’) plus CLOD (‘idiot’) plus GE, a reversal (‘raised’ in down lights) of E.G. (‘say’). |
| 5. |
Security finally appearing during fast race after a crash — this vehicle? (6,3) |
|
SAFETY CAR |
|
An envelope (‘appearing during’) of Y (‘securitY finally’) in SAFETCAR, an anagram (‘after a crash’) of ‘fast race’), with an extended definition; a safety car enters a motor racing track ahead of the leading car in the event of a crash or other obstruction on the track, and proceeds at a safe speed – the field is not allowed to overtake it – until the track is clear. |
| 6. |
Game ending in soup over and over again (7) |
|
PONTOON |
|
A charade of P (‘ending in souP‘) plus ON TO ON (‘over and over again’). |
| 7. |
Average assets half lost through less than zero responsibility, this looming large over Greece? (9) |
|
PARNASSUS |
|
A little older than austerity measures this time. A charade of PAR (‘average’) plus an envelope (‘through’) of ASS[ets] ‘half lost’ in [o]NUS (‘responsibility’) without the O (‘less than zero’, a little loose), for the mountain overlooking Delphi. |
Thanks Peter. Paul is still marvellous, but he seems to be getting way too easy. 1a was a write in, and gave 1d. 4 and 5 down were no trouble either, and gave C-C- for what it had to be, opening the whole thing up. Didn’t wait to parse KNAPSACK and MANGANESE, so thanks for those..
Nice puzzle, didn’t find it “relatively easy” PeterO, though looking again, there is nothing too tricky, yet a couple held out for quite a while.
Thanks Paul. very nice indeed, and PeterO for the blog.
(A feeling of déjà vu and a search turned up Qaos 25,632)
I think that Paul’s/Punk’s brilliant puzzle in the Indy yesterday was a very hard act to follow. I found Paul’s puzzle here today easier to solve than to parse, and I solved 15/10/6 with the help of Wikipedia.
I liked 1a, 1d, 20d, 11a, 4/22, 23d, 24a, 16a.
New word for me was ELDRITCH
Thanks for the blog, PeterO. I needed your help to parse 2d, 26/21, 9a,13d.
In 27/8 is the anagrind “ill-conceived”?
Thanks PeterO and Paul
I didn’t really enjoy this one – I found it easy to finish, but I left quite a few unparsed, and didn’t feel like making the effort to rectify this (partly, admittedly, as I am just about to go out for the day).
I thought it exemplified the weakness of the “linked clue” crossword. I soon had ?E?E from the crossers for 26ac. As I was unable to think of any artists called “Pete”, “Rene Magritte” was obvious, and so “ceci n’est pas une pipe” – all from the word count rather than the clues.
“eldritch” is an autological word. Wiki is Quite Interesting on the subject of such words, which is just as well because, ironically perhaps,
you won’t find “autological” in Chambers or Collins.
Thanks PeterO and Paul
Oh dear! Perhaps I just wasn’t in the mood, which is scarcely Paul’s fault, but I’m sorry to say I found this quite hard (especially to parse) and not very satisfying even though I solved and parsed it all. As others have implied, some of the parsing was pretty convoluted, not much use for solving, and more or less a chore.
Like ToniL, I dredged up last year’s Qaos puzzle which has a very similar clue for the painting.
Thanks Paul and PeterO,
Happy to say I did enjoy this, although I agree it was not one of Paul’s hardest. Unusually for me I tried to tackle the long linked solutions first – saw that 15,10,6 was clearly an anagram but didn’t get anywhere, so I wish I had used molonglo’s approach! Once they did fall (“U?E” was the key for me: “use”? hmm… “ute”? hardly likely… Aha! UNE!) it was fairly straightforward to progress methodically around the grid.
The only one I failed to parse properly was KNAPSACK – and it seems so obvious now.
Great clue for AUSTERITY MEASURES, although Paul seems to be giving mixed messages regarding his political leanings between 27,8 and 7…
Fell into place once the pipe had been found (or not ;))
Thanks PeterO; didn’t see the time=enemy in RENE MAGRITTE, although I liked the winter vehicle ‘not quite.’
‘Smelly guts’ seemed to be the only Paul trademark, leading to last in ELDRITCH – with weird and doctor, I was expecting an anagram rather than a somewhat obscure Scottish word [or is it the band? ;)]
Michelle @3
In 27/8 the confusion arose because I underlined ‘ill-conceived’ as part of the definition (now corrected), thereby forcing editorial content on Paul. However, I think that was Paul’s intent, particularly given the number of extended definitions in this puzzle. They make up an unusual mini-theme.
Took me a while to get started but then large parts of the grid got filled in quickly. Loved AUSTERITY MEASURES, didn’t know ELDRITCH so that was last in. I’m sure though that 15 10 6 has been clued before – the Rev I think, but it will be a few years ago.
Not on this wavelength at all. My knowledge of art and French is minimal, so even getting the artist’s name was a struggle, let alone 15-10-6! Battled through, but without much enjoyment and loads of reference to my computer; one search found CECI NEST PAS UNE POMME, which threw me completely. Failed with 9a and 24a, but had more or less given up by then.
I enjoyed it, helped by the fact that Magritte turned up in a DT puzzle the other day (cries of obscure artists from the grumpies!!) and so he and his non-pipe weren’t a problem here today. Thanks to Paul for the right amount of difficulty for a day when I had a 10 am meeting and to Peter O for the explanations.
Did seem a bIt messy, some verty long clues.
Strange mixture of easy and hard I thought.
Hang on. I thought most of you lot were more into books than me? But the only place I’ve seen ELDRITCH is in books. That doesn’t seem consistent.
Nice puzzle. No smut (unless you count French slang) but lovely wordplays. Not sure what your problem is with long clues Rowly. Most of Bunthorne’s clues were pretty snappy but he used plenty of words when he wanted to. Before your time maybe.
Nice hat-tip to Fellini. Who could forget his 8 1/2? Certainly not Giulietta Masina (Mrs. Fellini).
Love and peace
JS 🙂
DL – surprised you have never come across Andrew Eldritch, the front man of Sisters of Mercy. Would have thought they’d be right up your street…
After my time. I gave up when punk started!
No Jollly, Bunt hornew was a great favouritee of mine!!!
It wa the ‘bittiness” That annoyed ne topday.
In case you missed my comment this morning, this is what I posted for yesterday’s blog
Uncle Yap says:
July 3rd, 2013 at 12:19 am Edit
I am quite amused at the passion aroused by my very clinical explanation of the etymology of “Berk” which I did not know 24 hours ago. So hurray for Chambers which continues to enlighten this non-native. Anyway, to save the blushes, I have re-written the said word as c**t.
Eldritch is a word that always seems to have the same partner (as with “innocent bystander” and others recently documented on the letters page). In the case of eldritch it is……screech!
I enjoyed this puzzle but there were quite a few clues that I didn’t bother to parse properly, such as the surrealist and his work, KNAPSACK, LOLITA, MASONIC LODGE and AUSTERITY MEASURES.
Some quotations:
“Paul is still marvellous, but he seems to be getting way too easy” (molonglo @1)
“Happy to say I did enjoy this, although I agree it was not one of Paul’s hardest” (Mitz @7)
Fully agree with molonglo and, Mitz, I can’t remember when Paul had his hardest. I really find him one of the easier setters nowadays (also one of the best).
For reasons no-one knows (not even I) I always save puzzles by interesting setters to my hard disk. When I downloaded this puzzle this morning, I saw all at once the enormous amount of puzzles Paul produced in the last, say, three years.
Such quantity, such quality. As a dedicated amateur setter my heart sank …..
“‘Smelly guts’ seemed to be the only Paul trademark, leading to last in ELDRITCH – with weird and doctor, I was expecting an anagram rather than a somewhat obscure Scottish word” (Robi @8)
I quite like Paul/Punk/Mudd puzzles without his ‘trademark’ nowadays.
No bottoms today!
No bottoms today?
But there was one in yesterday’s Punk.
As michelle @3 made clear that was really a fun puzzle.
Today’s Paul had ‘Cap in hand’ – “H?” …. 🙂
A pity about the duplication of the art theme.
The déjà vu made the puzzle a lot easier than intended.
Thanks PeterO for your marvellous blog (which also contained my only real quibble, the ‘less than zero’ device in 7d).
UY @29
You seem determined to give maximum publicity to your unfortunate error of judgement yesterday. A word that is considered taboo (Chambers) or offensive (Collins) has no place on this site. To quote Collins “the use of this word is still not considered acceptable by most people outside very limited social contexts. Though originally a racily descriptive word in Middle English, it has been taboo for many centuries and continues to be so”.
That you were ‘quite amused’ by the response to your faux pas only serves to exacerbate situation. Please be more circumspect in the future.
Nice puzzle but way too easy. All done and dusted in 30 minutes!!(Including parsing)
I also felt deja vu with the MAGRITTE CECI ….. business. Not surprising as it was so recent. Giving us the artist with the word count, as did Qaos, made it a write in. Then the crossword just “came quietly”!
What am I to do now? It’s only 9:15 p.m.
I’m sure Ill think of something. 🙂
Gaufrid @ 23
I wonder whether your rebuke to Uncle Yap might not have been better delivered in private.
Hi newmarketsausage
I did consider that, but as UY deemed it necessary to repeat his comment in today’s post, I felt that it should be aired in public.
Sil @ 22. I kept records in 2003: Paul had 37 that year, Rufus 38 and Araucaria 41 + 3 holiday ones, Pasquale 10, Orlando 11, Gordius 23…
“I am quite amused at the passion…” (UY@19) I thought perhaps UY meant “bemused”?
The word HUNT is to me far more controversial, apt to raise the temperature of any debate in about 5 seconds flat. The other one is of course one of the few I don’t have to look up in a dictionary to see what it means. Maybe they should excise it from Chambers and Collins on those grounds.
It has, of course, appeared in a very respectable daily as a Nina.
Totally failed on this even though Paul is normally a favourite setter of mine. Got Magritte and little else so brain not in gear today.
I wonder why I should be rebuked at all. I legitimately and necessarily explained the etymology of a word and quoted no less than Chambers without embellishment. This is consistent with my usual practice of explaining difficult or obscure words (for the sake of newbies who are learning the art of crossword in these blogs). Maybe I should have dressed it up with ** the first time round but doing it later after the righteous indignation by some is at least an admission on my part that I should have done so earlier; and now to be knocked on the head by my captain – surely I have cause to feel hard done by.
Uncle Yap,
It is only necessary to explain the meaning of words you regard as obscure.
By preceding Chambers definition with the etymology you distorted the meaning of ‘berk’ and of Arachne’s clue.
Gaufrid did not rebuke you. He explained why your treatment of the clue was inappropriate on this forum.
I would advise you not to use the offending word in public at all. You will lose respect and risk more
than a metaphorical knock on the head.
Regards
How have I distorted Arachne’s clue?
The definition was Berks and Chambers gave me “berk or burk ()
n a fool.
[Short for Cockney rhyming slang Berkeley Hunt, for c**t]
In my blog, I had been less that pc not to insert ** in the first instance; but I made amends later and here in a manner which I thought was conciliatory … and to get chastised for it seemed to me rather unkind, don’t you think?
Am I not entitled to feel amused (and perhaps bemused) that some people can take such great umbrage at a word, lifted in its proper context from Chambers?
What I find both amusing and bemusing myself is that others who feigned outrage used the offending word explicitly themselves where they could have alluded to it indirectly.
UY,
You have both my sympathy and support. I hope we can all agree that words have power – but context is all. If I swear aggressively at someone’s poor driving, for example, that is one thing. Explaining the interesting derivation of a relatively modern word in the context of its relationship to a much older one is another. Offense is in the eye of the beholder.
Another point – the Guardian is a grown up newspaper which never uses silly asterisks to block out some of the letters of any word. It is more-or-less alone in this – certainly all of the tabloids, if they feel it necessary to quote a so-called “foul-mouthed” celebrity for example, will employ the self censoring asterisk policy. But what is the point? If you see “f***” you know exactly what word has been said, and so will every 10 year old in the country. I applaud the Guardian’s policy and was amused by UY’s openness on Tuesday.
That said, this is not my website. Gaufrid is perfectly entitled to put in place whatever policy regarding what words are acceptable or not that he sees fit, and I will follow the rules.
Good morning all, and apologies for not being able to comment earlier. Thanks, belatedly, to Uncle Yap for his excellent and painstaking blog of my puzzle. As today’s thread refers to a different puzzle I’ll keep this short. Surely the crux of the matter is the distinction between meaning and derivation. The meaning of ‘berk’ these days is well known, and the word has been used in sitcoms such as Only Fools and Horses; it was even to be heard in The Goons as early as the 1950s. The derivation of the word is not so well known, and, whilst fascinating to all who love words, is not relevant to its present day usage. There is a lovely bird called a wheatear, but as far as I know it does not have wheat in its ears, or eat ears of wheat. ‘Nuff said.
Uncle Yap @32: You ask me three questions.
To the second my answer is – no; to the third – I don’t think so.
On the controversy as a whole I think Arachne should have the last word.
Thanks Peter,
I would like to come to the defence of UY and say that he has done nothing wrong at all. Anyone offended by c**t has probably
got religion or is just a general weirdo. The sound of the word is in “country” and some Londoners may pronounce the word like the philosopher Kant. Listen to Derek and Clive doing “This bloke came up to me” and you’ll see what I mean.