Guardian 26,263 – Logodaedalus

27 comments on “Guardian 26,263 – Logodaedalus”

1. Thanks Andrew
   I parsed 26ac as a simple reversal of NO LISP U rather than an anagram as you have indicated.

2. Thanks Andrew and Logodaedalus. L was obviously asked to produce a very easy puzzle for Monday and he has certainly succeeded!

3. Thanks Gaufrid, your explanation of 26a is more plausible – I’ll edit the blog.

4. Thanks, Andrew

   For me, easier than the average Rufus. I don’t think I have come across ‘felucca’ before, but LUCCA in Tuscany is a favourite place (though not easy to get to by sailing boat) and the crossers led inexorably there. LOI was BADMASH – another new one for me, though the wordplay was transparent.

   I agree with Gaufrid about the parsing of 26a.

   ‘Funds’ = INVESTS grated a bit: ‘funds’ has to be transitive whereas ‘invests’ is intransitive, so ‘funds’ = ‘invests IN’, innit?

5. More than three quarters were simple write-ins today so agree that it was too easy for a Cryptic. Didn’t provide me with the brain work-out I prefer. No ‘groaners’ or even any clever word play so feeling a bit cheated.

6. Apart from 1d, which was a term I did not know but was obvious from the wordplay, I found this a really straightforward puzzle, and I am surprised that it was set by Logodaedalus, who is usually much more challenging.
   I parsed ‘upsilon’ as an anagram, failing to see the reversal as the solution seemed to leap out.
   Hope for better tomorrow.

7. Thanks Logodaedalus and Andrew.

   Like some others, I didn’t know BADMASH. LUCCA was used in a Guardian puzzle (Guardian 25977 by Shed) in 2013.

   Epsilon is used a lot in science but not, I think, upsilon. No doubt you all know about Upsilon Pi Epsilon. 😉

8. Being an Indian, BADMASH is a familiar word but – although the wordplay screamed it – I couldn’t believe it could find place in an English crossword. It was only when the crosses were all in place that I accepted that it must be the right word.

   Thanks to Logodaedalus and Andrew. A simple puzzle – perhaps a tad too simple for the cryptic page as suggested by Andrew – but nicely done.

9. I agree that this one may have been better suited to a Quiptic, with the exception of LUCCA and BADMASH (my LOI). Still, it was an enjoyable solve.

10. I liked it because I finished in one sitting – very unusual for me. So it must have been too easy!

11. I agree that this was easier than most Quiptics, so there’s not much to say, other than congratulations to Logodaedalus on becoming the 15th setter to reach 100 puzzles in the Guardian archive – though I’m sure there must have been a few before 1999. Thanks also to Andrew, and to everyone I met in Derby on Saturday for an entertaining day…

12. Thanks again G.

13. Thanks all
    must stop complaining about Rufus.

14. I think Last Trump needs some more explanation.

15. I was delighted to see any setter other than Rufus on a Monday, but this puzzle might as well have been set by him.

16. What an odd world – when the Quiptic is consistently way too difficult for its target audience, and then something like this is presented in the Cryptic slot.

    People often say it is surprisingly hard to write the simpler crosswords. But with a few tweaks, this would have been perfect, and a really enjoyable solve, in a Quiptic context.

17. I love this site for helping me understand clues I can’t get, and thanks to all the bloggers for contributing to it. Regarding whether this is too easy for the cryptic – please do bear in mind that the crossword isn’t just for the experts, the long-term solvers, and the people who are avid enough to be using this site. We need some easier cryptics as well as the more challenging ones. I recognise that this was easier than a lot, but for me and no doubt lots of other readers, that still translates to “got everything except a couple”.

18. God I hate the people who do the fifteen squared crosswords. For us ordinary mortals logodaedalus and Rufus are hard enough and if it wasn’t for the occasional easier crossword an Larry Elliot I would be a Telegraph reader. Guardian please note – harder is not better – drop Rufus and logodaedalus at your peril!!! Reviewers no more sanctimonious smug comments please.

19. Yes, similar in some ways to a Monday Rufus.

    Re BADMASH- [from Urdu, from Persian “bad” evil + Arabic “ma’?š” livelihood]

    Persian’s an Indo-European language like ours, and I’ve remarked on how similar are the cognates for some quite common words in both, though whether that’s the connection for “bad” I don’t know.

    Thanks all.

20. I’m not sure its being easy that is the issue. I didn’t get Lucca, having never heard of either Lucca or Felucca – and, having parsed the clue, had no interest in pursuing it further. I also didn’t get badmash, or rather I did, but was not inspired to confirm it.

    The problem was the lack of wit and invention in those I did get. Smug? Sanctimonious? Don’t think so. Just vaguely disappointed.

21. Completed 😉

22. Quite, Mike. I think a lot of regulars here forget that many newspaper readers aren’t crossword obsessives, and may have jobs that prevent them from attending to the paper first thing in the morning.

    That’s fine, and it’s their site therefore their rules, but a missed trick in my opinion. Everyone enjoys being the mouth-breathing “oh sir! Me sir! That was too easy sir!” on occasion, but it’s nice for the slow-witted pupils like me to get a go every now and then too.

23. I totally agree with Mike @17. And I prefer Rufus to almost all other setters. He is humerous.Although there are quite a few jokes here, eg 17a.Not all of us are experts.Mind numbingly difficult isn’t much fun. So well done Logodaedalus.
    And thanks Andrew.

24. I liked the cluing style of this puzzle for a change from the usual but at the same time I missed my anticipated serve of Rufus. I don’t know whether it was necessarily all that easy – depends whether the defs jump out at you.

    @Steve#18 – I think you are by no means alone in thinking that – the G should run two puzzles per day – like the DT does – keep everybody happy. OTOH I am surprised to see that you read the rest of the paper – I didn’t know anybody did that.

    AEP on the DT is much more pessimistic than Larry Elliot – after reading his prognostications of doom any crossword – however tough – cheers one up no end.

25. I don’t understand why some people take some of the more throwaway comments here so seriously. Surely it’s legitimate to comment on the level of difficulty whatever that is and however subjective the opinion, and saying a puzzle is easy doesn’t imply that it is not welcome.
    One thing I have noticed is that aside from Monday normally being straightforward (though Rufus often throws in one or two that need more thought and sometimes obscure knowledge), you can often get a run of difficult ones one week (last week being a good example – from Tuesday to Saturday they were all challenging) and a run of easier ones the next (this week so far?).
    The Quiptics often aren’t as easy as you might expect either, and what is easy often comes down to what you know and how well the brain is working on a particular day – for example (FE)LUCCA was only easy to me because I was familiar with both words.

26. BH is quite right.

    Surely all posts are implicitly preceded by the words “In my opinion”?

    A lot of the people who post on here are indeed very experienced solvers so naturally their assessment of an easy puzzle will differ from that of a beginner. Likewise there will be similar differences on a very difficult puzzle.

    So, should they not post purely because they found the puzzle very easy?

    For all of us , bar one, there is always at least one person posting on here who is is a better solver than oneself.

    “Vive la difference” I say.

27. Just the right level of difficulty for me. No specific knowledge about pop songs, no inside jokes using the names of other setter etc. People who grew up in England with English as the first language would never get how difficult it is for us foreigners.

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