Guardian 26,156 / Philistine

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A very straightforward puzzle from Philistine, but with some nice touches.

Across

1 Attend tailor, me? Unlikely (14)
TATTERDEMALION
(ATTEND TAILOR ME)* &lit. A tatterdemalion is hardly likely to attend a tailor’s shop.

9 In high spirits once over German worker (9)
EXUBERANT
EX + ÜBER + ANT

10 Prime cuts of beef — rare and, very occasionally, well done (5)
BRAVO
Initial letters

11 To whom the mouse and the lion pose a problem (5)
AESOP
(POSE A)*. The definition is a bit unclear but one gets the idea.

12 In wrong gear? That’s right, officer (9)
BRIGADIER
RIG in BAD + IE + R

13 A case of home position (8)
INSTANCE
IN + STANCE

14 Brief ascent with short cut to reach the top (6)
CLIMAX
CLIM(b) + AX(e)

17 Tawdry trim with no end of ostentation (6)
GARISH
GAR(n)ISH

19 Spread (eg butter) endlessly round a loaf of bread (8)
BAGUETTE
A in (EG BUTTE(r))*

22 Rank by comparison of writer’s novel (9)
FROWSTIER
(OF WRITERS)*

24 Aim when holy and delicate for a key change (5)
GRAIL
FRAIL with G for F

25 No lover has a broken heart (5)
HATER
(HEART)*

26 Covering party in spilt red wine (9)
EIDERDOWN
DO in (RED WINE)*

27 Business that’s promising to lose weight with sturdy exercise (6,8)
GROWTH INDUSTRY
GROW THIN + (STURDY)*

Down

1,23 Spooner’s embarrassing honest folk in play (3,6,2,3,5)
THE TAMING OF THE SHREW
Or, as the overworked rev. might have it, the Shaming of the True.

2 Examples of “stating the bleeding obvious” suit Mrs Faulty (7)
TRUISMS
(SUIT MRS)*. The surface is slightly marred by the fact that Mrs Fawlty didn’t spell her name like that.

3 Models are not liable to have bottom wiped by Swedish bloke (9)
EXEMPLARS
EXEMP(t) + LARS, a name in Sweden and elsewhere.

4 Ward problem (8)
DRAWBACK
A reverse clue, (DRAW)< being WARD

5 Framework said to follow April Fools? (6)
MATRIX
“May tricks”

6 Sign up to take part in bar billiards (5)
LIBRA
Reversed in (b)AR BIL(liards)

7 Mansion built for personal pleasure (7)
ONANISM
(MANSION)*. I don’t suppose they’d let this subject matter through at the Times. Onan, you will remember, ‘spilled his seed on the ground’ to avoid having a child by the widow of his brother, er … Er. This failure to do his duty by his sister-in-law was not cricket, so the Lord upped and slew him.

8 Solver’s old half-length cycle round ambassador (4,10)
YOUR EXCELLENCY
YOUR + EX + (LEN(gth) CYCLE)*

15 Look up fish at university in France, a mythical creature (4-5)
LOUP-GAROU
LO + UP + GAR + OU (Open University). The French name for the werewolf.

16 Hard rain’s gonna fall for 23 (8)
HARRIDAN
(HARD RAIN)*. The curiously worded anagram indicator alludes to Bob Dylan’s song.

18 Morning caller’s rest, woolly jumper on top (7)
ROOSTER
ROO (jumper) on (REST)*

20 What’s warm? (4,3)
THAW OUT
Another reverse clue: (THAW)* = WHAT

21 Advanced knot securing loose end (2-4)
HI-TECH
E in HITCH

23 See 1

28 comments on “Guardian 26,156 / Philistine”

  2. Thanks S & B. This was all over far too fast, with the werewolf of course last in, after a short pause for head-scratching. Much to like here including What’s warm.

  3. A frustrating mixture of the excellent and the weak. I liked 16d and 20d very much, but thought that 25a had escaped from another newspaper’s puzzle. Re. 7d, that’s one reason why I prefer the Times puzzle to the Grauniad: I hope the Times maintains its crossword standards under its new crossword editor, in other respects it has become pretty awful, with its content echoing its format.

  4. In Earthly Powers (c1985) Anthony Burgess goes on about the loup-garou. Once you note the expression I don’t think you forget it, similar to tatterdemalion, which whilst not frequent, has turned up before.

  5. Good morning everyone and many thanks Writinghawk.

    I loved this stylish example of the setter’s skill. Delightful surfaces and loads of fun. Admittedly, towards the easier end of the spectrum, but that just meant it was over rather too soon, for me.

    In the AESOP clue, was it just chance that there was an anagram and also a reversal?

    Loved What’s warm? & GROWTH INDUSTRY.

    Bravo, Philistine.

  6. Thanks for the blog, Writinghawk.

    I was delighted to see Philistine’s name this morning, expecting some fun and, as usual, not being disappointed.

    Another instance of a handful of long answers giving a helpful way in, without spoiling the enjoyment. TATTERDEMALION is one of those lovely words – like Serendipity – that, as Ian Payn says, you never forget, once having met them. I’m not a fan of Spoonerisms but this was a good one, since the phrase actually made sense. And I thought GROWTH INDUSTRY was great, an example of the lovely surfaces that Philistine is well-known for.

    I also liked DRAWBACK and THAW OUT and thought 16dn was clever.

    [It’s a pity about the lovely 2dn. It’s not like Philistine to miss a trick. I’m sticking my neck out here but I wonder if he was perhaps not allowed something like ‘suits Mrs Fawlty on the phone’ – as she so often was? Would that have been fair?]

    Huge thanks, as ever, Philistine, for a most enjoyable puzzle.

  7. Thanks, Writinghawk.

    Quite a bit easier than Philistine’s usual puzzles but great fun, with some very clever and amusing touches. The anagrams didn’t give me any trouble, apart from FROWSTIER, which took a bit more cerebration. Fortunately, I had come across LOUP-GAROU, though it took the crossing U for it to come to mind. I’m not a great fan of Spoonerism clues, but 1,23 is a superior example.

    I particularly enjoyed the reverse clues, the &littish 1a, the ingenious BRAVO – and of course ONANISM. As Writinghawk points out in the blog, Onan’s sin was his refusal to father a child to honour his late brother, rather than the mechanism by which this was achieved. And this was coitus interruptus and not ‘personal pleasure’, but that hasn’t prevented clerics from recommending the former and condemning the latter.

  8. Thanks all
    I can only assume that GC @ 3 objects to all biblical references; I cannot envisage anything else which could offend a mature crossword solver.
    I liked this very much: after romping through the top half I could not get the Spoonerism excpt eventually the long way round via ‘harridan’> ‘shrew’!
    1 AC an excellent anagram and 27 ac very misleading (for me) as I assumed ?r?w?hing minus g(ram) ‘lose weight’.Like many 20 d pleased and 21 down.
    Since 20 d was a completely new term to me it took some googling to get it.
    I thought this harder and therefore more enoyable than previous Philistine’s.

  9. Thanks Philistine for a good workout as I didn’t know FROWSTIER, TATTERDEMALION or LOUP-GAROU [sounds like something you might get hung by 😉 ]

    Thanks Writinghawk; unlike some, I do enjoy Spooner’s clues and this was an example of a good one.

    I liked the simple MATRIX and the faulty Fawlty – surely the Fawlty spelling could just have been permitted with a QM?

    I also liked BRIGADIER; I tried grenadier but it didn’t parse properly.

  10. Easier than the usual Philistine – as I remember, he’s usually pretty challenging – but very enjoyable. I hadn’t heard of Tatterdemalion or Loup-garou, but both will now be indelibly imprinted on my memory.

  11. All was going so well until I went for ‘ unum Cornu’ for 15d. Lead me a merry chase, I can tell you. Some lovely clues in this, however. A real pleasure.

  12. I thought this was at the top end of what a crossword can be. If not as difficult as some crosswords, only because Philistine has chosen style and wit over obscurity for its own sake. Hurrah for Philistine, and thanks to writinghawk.

  14. I enjoyed this – a pleasing variety of devices without anything too obscure apart from LOUP GAROU (my last in – despite having read Earthly Powers I didn’t remember it, though I agree with IP @4 that TATTERDEMALION is a word you only have to come across once).

  15. Thanks Writinghawk and Philistine

    An enjoyable puzzle. My favourites were 27a, 20d and 21d. I had to work out 15d from the word play as the expression was unknown to me.

    Gervase is of course quite right about Onan, though Philistine is right about the usual meaning of his ‘ism’. The reason that he was reluctant was that any child of the union with the widow would customarily still belong to his dead brother rather than to him – similar customs are found among some contemporary peoples e.g. in S. Sudan. The sin was Onan’s fraternal refusal to guarantee his brother offspring and descendants to honour his memory in later generations.

  16. tupu @15: Yes, indeed – I didn’t intend to imply that Philistine was in any way wrong by using the customary meaning of the word.

  17. I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle. I thought the &lit at @1ac was excellent, and even though I saw the word similarly clued somewhere else recently EXUBERANT made me smile. 7dn is one of the reasons I like doing the Guardian puzzle. I completed most of the puzzle quite quickly but was held up at the end in the SE, where LOUP-GAROU was my LOI from the wordplay after BAGUETTE and GRAIL.

  18. Well a very enjoyable crossword.

    I only had 2 answers after the first pass of the “acrosses” and thought it was going to be a stinker! However as I started the “downs” I suddenly remembered TATTERDEMALIION and then everything came very fast (sorry GC 😉 ) until the last one in 15D which took me ages.

    I too have read Earthly Powers but did not remember LOUP GAROU. I vaguely remember it starts something like “Here I sit with my catamite” which was a new word to me at 18! (Sorry again GC!)

    ONANISM made me laugh. (Ooooops)

    Thanks to Writinghawk and Philistine.

    P.S. I suspect that many solvers will have found this anything but “straightforward”.

  19. Frowsty was common teenage speak where I grew up near Nottingham, and was usually used by terrified boys re a SHREW.

    I enjoyed this much, and could imagine the late Frank Muir’s flannel for TATTERDEMALION.

    It did seem over a bit quickly though, but time passes like that when you’re having fun.

    Thanks everyone.

  20. I must say, I did enjoy the CLIMAX at the end of ONANISM.

    Thanks all for the background on Onan. I do recall from elsewhere that, in similar circumstances, “God gets quite irate”.

  21. You have to feel sorry for Onan. Any child conceived would, as tupu@15 says, be considered the child of his elder brother, who had died childless, and would therefore presumably (at least if it were a boy) deprive Onan of his inheritance. No wonder he wasn’t too enthusiastic. I thought it was a witty clue, like some others (if unlike other others).

    Limeni@20: Haha, well spotted!

  25. @Brendan (not that one) #18 – yes, for we part-timers this wasn’t as easy as most contributors imply although we can’t argue with any of the clues. It’s a case of learning new words that we will probably only ever see again in future crosswords.

    GARDILOO is one such I remember from about ten years ago but I have never seen it since.

    I can’t agree this was such an enjoyable puzzle for many people because some words were so obscure that if you didn’t know them then you couldn’t get them.

  26. Brendon (not that one):
    Hear! Hear! I love a bit of “naughtiness”. Poor old GC – I wonder if he’s just not getting the love he needs…..my advice (and Heaven knows we can all be curmudgeonly/cantankerous at times) to him is to smile (so the world smiles back).
    As nearly always, Guardian and Indie crosswords a source of great pleasure in my life (and without spilling seed!)

  27. Two apologies:
    Brendan (not that one) for spelling slip. And GC: I had no intention to be discourteous, just caring! x

  28. Welcome to Writinghawk, are you a new blogger?

    Great puzzle, thanks Philistine, I ticked off A1, D2, 4, 5, and 20. Lovely.

    PS, I see, if you try to spell the number in the captcha, it won’t work, it only allows 2 characters.

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