Guardian 26,189 / Philistine

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I have  commented a couple of times already on what a good week we’ve been having for puzzles – not only in the Guardian – and to round it off with one from Philistine couldn’t be better, as far as I’m concerned. We’ve been challenged in different ways by a wide variety of styles in the last few days. There’s nothing too taxing here, I think, and no obscure words, but we have the wit, elegance and lightness of touch that we’ve come to expect from this setter.

It’s a lovely bright morning, I’m off out on a walk soon and this was a perfect way to start the day. Many thanks to Philistine.

Across

1 See water or steam? (6)
NOTICE
NOT ICE, the solid form of water

4 Visual movement in stone (7)
OPTICAL
TIC [movement] in OPAL [stone]

9,12 A remote site H? (3,6,2,7)
THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE
H is the middle letter of nowHere: perhaps not a new device but here it is cleverly combined with 22,29 and 17ac – and there may well be plenty of solvers who have not seen it done before

10 Infirmary without company turns wet (5)
RAINY
Anagram [turns] of IN[firm]ARY without ‘firm’ [company]

11 State of Colorado had independence reversed (5)
IDAHO
Hidden reversal in coloradO HAD Independence

13 School of psychology may be last — get over it! (7)
GESTALT
GET round [over] an anagram [may be] of LAST

15 Though disrupted timetable, but not satisfied (6)
ALBEIT
Anagram [disrupted] of TI[met]ABLE minus ‘met’ [satisfied]

17 A remote site halved outside trip (6)
SAFARI
SI [half of SI[te] round [outside] A FAR [a remote]

19 Compiler starts to seem lonely at notable days, such as Christmas and Easter (7)
ISLANDS
I [Compiler] plus the first letters of Seem Lonely At Notable Days Such – a beautifully misleading surface

22,29 A remote site D? (3,4,2,6)
THE BACK OF BEYOND
D is the last letter of beyonD

24 Home help is back in the country (5)
INDIA
IN [home] + reversal [back] of AID [help]

26 What’s used to summon grapeshot (5)
PAGER
Anagram [shot] of GRAPE

27 Arrangement to lend across shampoo mum’s gone and taken off (9)
LAMPOONED
Anagram [arrangement] of LEND round shAMPOO minus ‘sh’ [mum]

28 Running water for hire — that’s about right (7)
TORRENT
TO RENT [for hire] round R [right]

Down

2 Character of volunteers (5)
THETA
THE TA [Territorial Army – volunteers]

3 Sausage and fried potato on hot plate? Eat heartily (9)
CHIPOLATA
CHIP [fried potato] + the middle letters [heartily!] of hOt pLATe and eAt – lovely!

4 19 across coca beans kid had shelled (7)
OCEANIA
The same device again, with another clever clue word [shelled] : cOCa bEANs kId hAd

5 Via audible cast (5)
THREW
Sounds like ‘through’ [via]

6 Conran’s first interior design standard (9)
CRITERION
C[onran] + anagram of INTERIOR – another great surface

7 Males provide eggs first, but they’re not professional (6)
LAYMEN
MEN [males] with LAY [provide eggs] first

8 It follows winding road with speed and skill (6)
ADROIT
IT after an anagram [winding] of ROAD

14 One finding and keeping such odd characters to meet Nemesis, perhaps (9)
SCAVENGER
S[u]C[h] [odd characters] + AVENGER [Nemesis, perhaps]

16 City where Oliver wanted this curry first (9)
BALTIMORE
MORE is what Oliver Twist wanted and we need to put BALTI [curry] first

18 Paper smear exposing personality (7)
INKBLOT
Cryptic definition, referring to the inkblot test

19 Where they’ve all got it, says paranoid notoriety (6)
INFAMY
The only way to explain this is to provide a link to the [in]famous utterance of the paranoid Kenneth Williams in ‘Carry on Cleo’.
Apparently, this has been voted the funniest film one-liner: others in the top ten were, “He’s not the Messiah, he’s a very naughty boy.” [‘Life of Brian’] and  this one, which you really need to listen to.

20 Quick if cat involved in fiscal deductions (7)
SCALDED
Hidden in fiSCAL DEDuctions – a reference to the expression, ‘like a scalded cat’ – very quickly

21,1 Got hot pants in order to be ruthless (4,2,7)
STOP AT NOTHING
Anagram [order] of GOT HOT PANTS IN

23 Get on round about and get on (5)
AGREE
AGE [get on] round RE [about] – one of my favourites

25 Dog in trouble with dog (5)
DINGO
Anagram [trouble] of DOG IN

30 comments on “Guardian 26,189 / Philistine”

  1. Thanks Eileen. A good way to end the working week for those not fortunate enough to be retired people of leisure. As you say, a good week for puzzles, so Carry On the good work.

  2. The origin of ‘infamy infamy, they’ve all got it in for me’ is not in fact Talbot Rothwell’s script for Carry on Cleo.

    It was written by Frank Muir and Denis Norden, and first appeared in the Radio Fun Annual of 1950, purporting to be Jimmy Edwards as a headmaster, writing about the doings in his school.

    And let me say that, as you say Eileen, wit, elegance and lightness of touch is what we expect from Philistine, it is also what we always get from you.

  3. I agree – an excellent puzzle. On my first pass of the clues, I thought it was going to be tough, but I soon got into it and finished in half an hour over breakfast – which suited me fine.

    Some neat clueing. I particularly liked the three featuring ‘a remote site’ and OCEANIA.

    Thanks, Philistine and Eileen. [Have a good walk, Eileen. I’d be out too, but for a battered toe.]

  4. Yes, nicely clued and nothing too obscure (although I couldn’t get ALBEIT for some time). Many thanks to Philistine and Eileen.

  5. Very enjoyable. Re 4d, the coca bush’s leaves have well-known properties, and it also produces flowers and red berries. Obviously there are seeds, but can these seeds be called beans in the accepted sense of the word?
    Doubt if it’s a misprint of cocoa because the clue’s device would not have the same beautiful precision that is a stand-out quality of its fellows.

  6. Many thanks Eileen and Philistine

    An excellent commentary on a fine puzzle. After an initial almost fruitless read (gestalt was my first in), I found myself on Philistine’s wavelength and thoroughly enjoyed his various devices. There was a refreshing lack of the single letter abbreviations that bugged some people earlier in the week.

    I noted that 3d and 4d were much the same type of clue as each other, as too were 15a and 27a, but I’m not grumbling.

    I ticked lots as the fancy took me working through – 9,12, 17a, 19a, 22,29, 19d, 20d. 23d.

    As Eileen and others have said – an excellent week.

  8. Thanks, Eileen. Lovely puzzle.

    For once, I find myself applauding the editor’s positioning of puzzles through the week – what a great way to wind down the pressure of the last three tough ones: not too difficult but, for me at least, the most entertaining. [Not sure what that bodes for tomorrow, though!] 😉

    The central(ish) positioning of TIC in the first two across clues made me wonder if there would be something more going on but I couldn’t see anything more as I skipped through the rest.

  10. Very nice, though I am not really sure what ‘paper’ is doing in 18d.

    Umpire @5, ha, that is a slight gotcha! I didn’t notice and, of course, the clue still works, even if the surface is (slightly) marred.

    I started well by solving 1ac immediately. ‘See water or steam? (6)’ was clearly VAPOUR (v. = see, a pour = “a pouring; an amount poured at a time” = water?). ‘What a nice clue!’ I thought, and moved on.

    Of course I quickly realised my mistake because of the accumulation of absurd letters in the downs, but it’s unusual to have two parsings that both work so well – unless of course Donk is at the wheel.

    Was there a hint of a topical theme about the weather? RAINY, TORRENT, ISLANDS, the middle of nowhere …

  11. @Writinghawk@10

    Its the “paper smear” that is the inkblot. A smear on paper, otherwise put. Thanks to Crucible and Eileen. An elegant offering.

  12. Thanks, Eileen

    Another good puzzle from Philistine with some ingenious clueing and humorous touches.

    I did find this one more straightforward than his previous crosswords. The long solution ‘remote sites’ leapt out at me, as they were clearly dingbat clues. GESTALT was for me, like tupu, a very early entry. Last in was ALBEIT – I had misread the first word as ‘through’.

    Favorites were OPTICAL (clue disguised as an anagram), ISLANDS, CHIPOLATA (both great construction/surface combinations), PAGER (nice lift-and-separate).

  13. I particularly enjoyed “Back of beyond” and “Middle of nowhere” solved soon after reading the leader page where the “In praise of …” section included this brilliant piece of relativity:

    ‘When the late Donald Dewar asked an elderly woman in Uig on the west of Lewis if she felt remote, she floored him with her eloquent reply: “Remote from where?”‘

  14. The trouble for me is that the D clue led quickly to the H clue, with 21,1 not far behind, so all of a sudden vast parts of the grid were filled. NE took me longest, with the clever ALBEIT last in. Still, anything with INFAMY is worth solving, and ISLANDS was a good clue too.

  15. Thanks to Eileen for the blog. You explained a couple where I had the answer without being able to parse it.

    On 27 I removed ‘ma’ (= mum) from shampoo and spent a lot of time trying to make something of it. Eventually I realised that mum also means silent 🙁

  16. After the challenges of the last three days this was fairly gentle and pleasant with no major holdups and nothing controversial – I largely agree with Trailman except my last in was OCEANIA, which I liked (needed the O crosser to see it) and the last I parsed properly was RAINY.

    Thanks to Philistine and Eileen.

  17. Thanks all
    This was a really enjoyable solve, I love the clues which you know immediately will not yield to a check-list of the standard methods: anagram, hidden etc.
    9ac and 22ac were two such, so much more inyeresting than a theme and , in my view, more commendable to the setter.
    I also liked 26ac,3d and 23d.

  18. Thanks Eileen and Philistine
    I had the same experience as chas @15 with 27ac, except that I eventually entered the answer without realising that “mum” = “sh”!
    INFAMY and SCALDED were my favourites.

  19. In the interests of balance I’ll say first it was a bit too easy overall. But I must add that 19ac has as good a surface reading as I have ever encountered. Many thanks.

  20. I agree that this puzzle was lighter than those of the previous couple of days but it very enjoyable.

    Thanks to Eileen for saving me the trouble of having to search for which Carry On film the INFAMY joke was in. It was probably doing the rounds verbally well before Frank Muir and Dennis Norden put it down on paper, but Kenneth Williams’ delivery of it is certainly the most well known.

    Unlike several of you I didn’t get GESTALT straight away, and after I solved it my last two entries were the INKBLOT/SAFARI crossers.

  21. Yes: I agree with most said, another fine puzzle.

    A bit of BS etymology from me: perhaps a teacher will correct me if I’m wrong: “Cippola” is Italian for “onion”, and so the verb “cippolare” “to add onion” would seem likely (I’m sure the Italians must do that too). A sausage with added onion would then be “cippolata” “onioned” and the anglicised phonetic spelling gives us our word…

    Their was no direct version for the sausage I could see.

    Many thanks all.

  22. Nice puzzle. Thanks to Philistine and for the blog.

    I agree about the etymology of chipolata but I’d be amazed if it were currently defined as anything other than a type of sausage, onioned or not, so all fairly done IMO and that clue was really lovely, I thought.

  23. Re 1 across, NOTICE, “See water or steam?(6).”

    Cryptic 24626, at 22 across, clued NOTICE as “Detect water or steam (6).”

    But still a great clue.

  24. Martin P (if you’re still there): Cipolla (one p, two ls!) is certainly Italian for ‘onion’, and undoubtedly the root of the little sausage. Chambers says CHIPOLATA came into English via French. But it might not be a past participle as such. An Italian omelette is a ‘frittata’, though the word for ‘fried’ is just ‘fritta’. The French/English equivalent ending ‘-ade’ appears in various culinary terms, although the corresponding verbs don’t exist: lemonade, marmalade, pipérade etc., denoting a product made from an ingredient ( lemon, ‘marmelo’ [quince in Portuguese!], pepper in these examples).

  25. Hi Beermagnet @13 if it’s not too late to catch up with you –

    Thanks for that: I love the ‘In praise of…’ slot but didn’t have time before blogging and going out for my sunny but still windy walk round a local reservoir [followed by an enjoyable pub lunch] to read my paper. And a coincidental mention of Easter Island, too!

    It reminded me of my favourite Yorkshire story [which I’ve told here before] of the local, who, when asked by a tourist why Dent station [the highet mainline station in England] was so far [four miles] from the village of Dent, replied,”Appen they wanted it near t’ railway.”

  26. Thanks, Philistine and Eileen as ever.

    I came to this late today and thoroughly enjoyed it.

    GESTALT went straight in as did ALBEIT, which my father used to use at regular intervals.

    Martin P @21, in Italy we use aggiungere in recipes for ‘to add’.

    Giovanna xx

  27. Hi Giovanna: yes, aggiungere is part of my limited vocabulary along, with ropy spelling -thanks Gervase I didn’t check 🙂 – but I wondered if you made up verbs as we do, as in the now near universal “our curlers have medalled” etc.? (Although “to onion” would perhaps be no worse than “to salt”).

  28. Eileen: don’t get me started on Yorkshire stories: I have to live here (for the time being, for part of the time).
    😀

  29. Thanks Philistine and Eileen

    This one was printed off and forgotten about until yesterday – was only able to grab 5 mins here and 5 mins there to solve it which gave a chance for the poor old brain to pick up all of the clever devices.

    My last ones in were INFAMY (which I didn’t know the song), LAMPOONED (after last trying to get rid of ma) and SCALDED.

    Philistine is one of these setters that you let out “yeeeaaass!” when you see his name on the banner!

  30. Just dug this one out of the bag. Very enjoyable! didn’t quite finish it, but really liked the H and D clues.

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