Guardian 26,265 / Paul

34 comments on “Guardian 26,265 / Paul”

1. For my taste, this was Paul in excellent form: not too difficult, but with many imaginative and witty clues. I don’t know whether the device in 20a has been used before, but it struck me as the sort of clue the late lamented Rev. might have conjured up, and praise doesn’t come higher than that. The second Paul puzzle in a row that I have really enjoyed.

2. Thank you Eileen. I think in 16d the “me” comes from SETTER rather than I

3. Nice one from Paul – very nice clueing overall. Thanks to him, and to you, Eileen!

   Re. GREASE MONKEY, I think the reference is simpler than anything to do with a monkey puzzle tree: if one were to (literally) grease a monkey, one would “make climbing trees difficult” for it!

4. I second Shirl @2: I parsed 16D as (I’M AFTER)* + ME for setter.

5. I parsed 4D as Abhay did – one of my favourites, along with that rather nice cryptic definition in 20A.
   17A was driving me nuts – I got it from the crossers and worked out the “malade” but still couldn’t quite see how it went together. Now I read it I’m not sure how I was so close and still missed it!

   As always, thanks to Eileen for the blog and to Paul for a great puzzle.

6. Hi Shirl and Abhay

   Of course you’re right and that’s the way I parsed it initially – just misread it when writing up the blog, after the breakfast break!

   And thanks, Abhay, for the more sensible answer for GREASE MONKEY. I was uneasy about ‘trees’ being plural!

7. Thanks Eileen. Super puzzle, but I rather stupidly failed to get Big Mac as I didn’t notice the word order was 10,9 rather than 9,10. My sympathies with 16dn, I know how hard it is to get through a blog without something you did not intend!

8. Thank you Paul and Eileen. I enjoyed this, but really it was very easy with lots of write-ins. I ask again, why is it when Rufus sets an easy puzzle on a Monday he gets castigated, but when Paul sets an easy one excuses are made. OK there were a few smiles here 17a and 20a for instance, but Rufus also often raises a titter. Rufus does perhaps overdo the dds but as I said on the discussion of Paul’s last Prize it was full of ornithological dds and this was not really commented upon. My thanks go to ALL our setters, for giving us that 15mins to an hour of fun and brain stretching which is such a great way to start the day!! Keep up the good work ALL of you!!

9. PS. When I got 1d, I looked around for Athletico somewhere, thinking that Paul might have based the puzzle on the forthcoming Champions League Final. But it was not to be.

10. Thanks, Eileen

    Another highly enjoyable puzzle from the reliable Paul. Quite a lot of food spread around here, though it doesn’t really have the feel of a thematic.

    Favourites were the &littish 10,9, the European 17a and 20a, the neat 22d – and 24,26 raised a smile.

11. Great fun and all done in a single sitting, which was something of a relief after my troubles yesterday. REAL MADRID my favourite, merited reading out to Mrs Trailman as we drove up the motorway (don’t worry, she’s not a 24, 26).

12. Thanks Paul for an entertaining puzzle.

    Thanks Eileen for a high-quality blog. Somehow I missed the MALADE bit of seasick – a good clue! I also liked the FRENCH TOAST.

13. As I have said before what a lucky Eileen you are. Great fun to solve and, I would imagine, to blog too, thank you. Thanks to Paul for the fun. Lots and lots of favourites today.

14. Thanks, Paul, for a fun crossword and thanks, Eileen, for a great blog – appreciated the parsing of MARMALADE which I tried to distort into mal de mer.

    Last in was USED – not sure how many bloggers actually read the Guardian but the great Hadley Freeman wrote an article today on the recent sacking of the female editor of the paper who has recently been sacked. Her first name was Jill and I couldn’t get that out of my head.

    The Big Mac clue was very funny.

    GREASE MONKEY is a slang term for a mechanic (according to Google)

15. Apologies for the distorted syntax in the above entry – written in a hurry as I didn’t want to be scooped on “Grease Monkey”. The lady who was sacked was of course the editor of the NYT and NOT Alan Rushbridger.

16. Hi Jovis @15

    “… written in a hurry as I didn’t want to be scooped on “Grease Monkey”.”

    I’m not sure what point you were making about that. ‘Mechanic’ is underlined as the definition in the blog. Is it that I didn’t point out that it’s slang?

17. Thanks all
    Quite reasonable although we do seem to see a lot of this compiler since Araucaria died.
    Last in was the SW corner,I had 16d early but did not enter it because missing the anagram left it unparsed. Technically last in was ‘used’ which along with 24,25 ac were my favourites.

18. Thanks to Paul for the puzzle and Eileen for the blog – I hope breakfast was not too hurried!

    I enjoyed 20a for every possible reason, but not so keen on 10,9 but only because of the thought of the end result.

    I got 1d on the crossers, but couldn’t parse it – just shows that too much knowledge of football is a dangerous thing.

    I don’t want to disagree with a blogger with the nom de guerre of Coltranesax, and I don’t with what I think is his main thesis that all our setters make a good job of offering puzzles which provide mental exercise, amusement and occasional extensions of our knowledge.

    I do think though that, regardless of who the setter is, as the week progresses the degree of difficulty should increase to a point which requires us to spend some more time or to come back later – or both!

19. Hi Mac Ruaraidh Ghais

    I’m sure you realse that what I meant was that the mention of both TOAST and MARMALADE in one puzzle proved too much!

    [I long ago retreated from the tedious on-going ‘too easy’ debate.]

20. Very enjoyable today. All the answers were well clued. Favourites were 10,9a and 20a. 24, 26a held me up a little, as 27d was my LOI.

21. Most of this was a breeze, but I then got completely stuck for a couple of hours in the SW corner before remembering SUNDAY DRIVER – maybe I just spend too little time on the road and too much on public transport, but the phrase was not one I was more than distantly familiar with. Last in was USED – no excuses there except needing the crossers. Thanks to Paul for the crossword and Eileen for the usual exemplary blog.

22. Eileen @ 16

    Thank you for the response.

    Duly chastened, I shall try and follow your good example

23. Sorry Eileen – I meant @ 19

24. RCW @17 – you’re right that Paul’s output has increased to almost one a week recently, but he has produced at least 40 every year since 2003 so it’s not a huge increase, and in his case I think they are all still welcome.

25. I thought this was another very enjoyable Paul puzzle. I started slowly for some reason, but once I had a few answers most of the rest of the clues weren’t that difficult to crack. However, it took me a while to get BIG MAC AND FRIES, that led me to ARMY (I should have seen it a lot earlier) and HOCK (I was reasonably sure it was going to be the answer but waited until I could confirm the C checker), and then I went back to the SW corner where I finally saw SUNDAY DRIVER, which led me to my LOI, USED.

26. Thanks to Paul & Eileen.

27. reversing big mac and fries was also my failure to read the clue properly but great fun

28. Eileen @ 16

    Apologies for the precipitate and ill-judged comments – put it down to a combination of ignorance and innocence. I was too pleased with myself for actually completing a Paul by 2:30pm. I wasn’t aware of the significance of GREASE MONKEY but worked it out from the crossings. I checked on Google to see if it was some sort of tool beloved by mechanics but, of course, you were as usual well ahead of the game… oops. Sorry!

29. Hi Jovis @28

    No need at all for apologies! I’m still not sure that we’re understanding each other.

    I discovered on a recent blog that not everyone realised that most of us nowadays underline definitions in the blog and resolved to make that plain each time. Remembered to do so two weeks ago then subsequently forgot!

30. An enjoyable but very brief workout from Paul.

    It’s looking like a “6 course meal week”. Unusually we’ve had the aperitif, an amuse bouche, and today’s entree. (Hopefully we’ll get to the main course before Saturday!)

    Don’t mention the “tedious on-going ‘too easy’ debate”. I did once but I think I got away with it!

    Thanks to Eileen and Paul

31. Paul’s normally one of my favourite setters, and I generally find them a satisfying mix of tough and humorous.

    Possibly down to mood/taste, I found this one fitted in with the mini-run of less meaty puzzles we’ve had this week, but variety’s the spice of life, some say.

    Many thanks all.

32. Thanks Paul and Eileen

    Agree that this was a little easier – but I think that is the genius of Paul. He can produce the whole gamut of degrees of difficulty. Strangely enough his easier ones recently have tended to be prize ones !!
    What I do appreciate with him though, is that he will always give rise to a grin with a twist in the tale with his clues – neatly done here with 1d, 10,9a, 17a and 20a.

33. tail * even 🙂

34. Re Eileen @ 16
    Hi. I wonder if I didn’t explain myself clearly when I mentioned to you the problem with underlining here recently? When I access the blog from my “smart” ‘phone I am unable to see the underlining. Colours yes, but no underlining! You post later that you had resolved to mention the underlining in future. I’m afraid this still wouldn’t make it any more visible! I hope this helps…?

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