Guardian 26,362 / Paul

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A pretty easy-going puzzle from Paul on his [almost] best behaviour. Nicely-constructed, witty clues, with no obscurities – an enjoyable solve. Thanks, Paul.

Across

1 Short pronouncement welcomed by second doctor (6)
MEDICO
EDIC[t] [short pronouncement] in MO [second]

4 Story going either way (3,4)
AGA SAGA
A palindrome [going either way] – ‘a popular novel in a semi-rural middle-class setting’ [Chambers] – a word coined specifically for the novels of Joanna Trollope, see here

9 Two queens push out old character with extraordinary powers (9)
SUPERHERO
Anagram [out] of ER ER [two queens] and PUSH + O [old]

10 Blade that can swivel (5)
ROTOR
Another palindrome [can swivel]

11 Taxman goes after bird (5)
TITHE
HE [man] after TIT [bird]

12 Gravy label inaccurate by a small margin (4,5)
JUST ABOUT
Charade of JUS [today’s posh word for gravy] + TAB [label] + OUT [inaccurate]

13 Make rigid wood that’s switched into pliable type (7)
PETRIFY
Reversal [switched] of FIR [wood] in an anagram [pliable] of TYPE

15 God almost frames the Church for fraud (6)
DECEIT
DEIT[y] [God almost] round CE [the Church of England]

17 Male kidnapping terrorist leader, an assassin (6)
HITMAN
HIM [male] round [kidnapping] T[errorist] + AN

19 Cook strangling duck, a thug (7)
GORILLA
GRILL [cook] round [strangling] O [duck] + A

22 One plans a ring with new earrings (9)
ORGANISER
O [ring] + an anagram [new] of EARRINGS

24 Slow mover‘s eighth position? (5)
SLOTH
If first position is Slot A, eighth will be SLOT H

26 Rich cake‘s wrong cake, ultimately (5)
TORTE
TORT [a civil wrong] + [cak]E

27 Does one produce funny goods with rare wit? (3,6)
GAG WRITER
Anagram [funny] of GG [goods] + RARE WIT – &littish

28 Humility the way with beastly home (7)
MODESTY
MODE [way] + STY [beastly home]

29 Figure covered in paint went yellow (6)
TWENTY
Hidden in painT WENT Yellow

Down

1 Error sees girl on the favourite upended (7)
MISSTEP
MISS [girl] + reversal [upended] of PET [favourite]

2 Warehouse has to come off drugs? (5)
DEPOT
To come off drugs could be to DE-POT

3 Little money invested in Medicare, unfortunately, so live for today! (5,4)
CARPE DIEM
P [little money] in an anagram [unfortunately] of MEDICARE: an aphorism taken from one of Horace’s odes:
‘…carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero.’ – ‘seize the day, trusting the next as little as possible.’

4 Excited, finding milk in a bar (7)
AROUSED
USE [milk] in A ROD [a bar]

5 Extract from Kafka or Tallis that comes straight from the heart (5)
AORTA
Hidden in KafkA OR TAllis – the main artery in the human body

6 A harlot, I suspect, stealing Waugh’s heart as a novelist? (9)
AUTHORIAL
A + an anagram [suspect] of  HARLOT I round [stealing] [Wa]U[gh]

7 Pass gas through all extra lids with speed (6)
AERATE
Initial letters [‘lids’] of All Extra + RATE [speed] – an unusual indicator, which surely can’t have been chosen to enhance the surface?

8 River bird hit player (6)
DEEJAY
DEE [river] + JAY [bird]

14 Collecting boatyard worker, Sailor Heath set off (9)
TRIGGERED
TED [Sailor Heath] round RIGGER [boatyard worker]: ‘Sailor Ted’ was one of the nicknames of  Edward Heath, British PM, 1970-4, who had a yacht called Morning Cloud

16 Port’s sailors, one accessing vessel? (9)
CORKSCREW
CORK’S [port’s] + CREW [sailors]

18 Spooner’s horse does this for a bunch of flowers (7)
NOSEGAY
Spooner’s horse  ‘GOES NEIGH’:  unlike yesterday’s, this one does work for me and raised a smile

19 Attachment to the house music genre (6)
GARAGE
Double definition

20 In which butts mishplaced? (7)
ASHTRAY
No misprint this time but a fairly typical Paul clue: a drunk’s cigarette ends might go astray and be misplaced

21 A cheeky Shakespearean role? (6)
BOTTOM
Cryptic definition, referring to the character in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’

23 Scottish vegetables observed being uprooted, including a pea, we hear (5)
NEEPS
Reversal [being uprooted] of SEEN [observed] including a P [sounds like pea]
Scottish swedes / turnips – with tatties, the traditional accompaniment to haggis

25 Perhaps daily newspaper to cut one out (5)
OFTEN
FT [newspaper] in [to cut] an anagram [out] of ONE

32 comments on “Guardian 26,362 / Paul”

  1. Thanks Paul and Eileen
    “Paul-lite” I thought, with only the SE giving any delay. ASHTRAY and OFTEN were my favourites.

  3. Yes a nice straightforward offering. I had Andrew for 21d as in Andrew Aguecheek, if i have spelt it correctly, before the other clues ruled it out. Thank you Eileen. NOSEGAY was one of the few spoonerisms I have ever liked.

  4. Thanks Eileen. The only delay was in 4A which was always going to be a palindrome. I guessed it, but could not rule out some exotic ata-pata ala-mala option, so left it, unsatisfactory really.

  7. Like muffin, OFTEN and ASHTRAY (now that jvh has revealed it in all its glory) were the pick of a very good bunch for me. I also liked the cheeky Shakespearean role – perhaps more so because I failed to see it immediately and had more time to savour the aroma, as it were. And TWENTY was a top-class hidden too.

  8. Thanks, Eileen.

    Unusually straightforward for Paul, without any of his customary complex charades and almost wholly devoid of ribaldry. Most of the clues are simply constructed, with good surfaces, but there are some uncharacteristically odd and clunky ones (9a, 2d, 5d, 7d)

    I particularly liked SLOTH, CORKSCREW and TWENTY (because it was a while before I realised this was ‘hidden’), but with a nod also to 27a and 18d.

  9. I finished quite easily but without full understanding. Thank you Eileen for explaining the wordplay of 24a – and the definition of 4a!

  14. Thanks Paul and Eileen

    Enjoyable puzzle again from Paul. AGA SAGA and NEEPS were new to me.

    OFTEN was the last in, although PETRIFY caused the most trouble to get.

  15. Thanks Paul for an entertaining puzzle. Cable failure this morning so I had to use the old pen and paper trick.

    Thanks Eileen for the blog, especially the parsing of JUST ABOUT. Who are these posh people that say “JUS?”

    Yes, a very nice Spoonerism, better than yesterday’s. I liked the ASTRAY thingie for putting your butt in. TRIGGERED reminded me of the Lone Ranger movie, which I thought was a bit better than some of the critics gave it. Hi-ho or as Wiki says hi-yo!

  16. I am sure that I was not drunk, but I never saw the “mishplaced” (sic) indicating slurred speech. I parsed ASHTRAY from “astray” and the butt of whicH. Interesting. Thanks as usual, Paul and Eileen. Incidentally, what has become of Arachne?

  17. Thanks Paul and Eileen. I agree with Muffin that the SE corner was the trickiest. And I’d never heard of JUS for gravy. Where does this come from?
    Overall quite enjoyable.

  19. For those mystified by “jus,” there was this foodie trend to serve various things “au jus.” Of course that doesn’t mean “with gravy” exactly, and “jus” on its own is gravy even less so. But it’s become a common misuse in pretentious restaurants. But hey–English exists to butcher French, and French largely deserves it.

  21. Oh, yeah, my comment on the puzzle: This being Paul, I thought that given “mishplaced” I was supposed to lisp. And–again, since it’s Paul–I thought that (un-lisping it) one’s butts might be misplaced in an ass tray. I’m glad I’m wrong.

    I always enjoy Paul’s puzzles, not principally for the cheekiness, but because they always seem to be on my wavelength. Where they’re hard, it’s in a way I can deal with. And the clues are almost uniformly clever. He’s become my favorite setter.

  22. A nice little collection of good things, including a rare ‘Hidden Word’ clue that is really hidden in TWENTY. And unlike hedgehoggy I don’t mind a bit of “Lift & Separate”! (TITHE)

    Thanks Eileen for another excellent blog. 19d is actually even one level better than you have it, in that GARAGE is not only an “attachment to the house” and a “music genre”, but also an “Attachment to the ‘House Music’ genre”!…which probably qualifies it as COTD for me.

  23. Many thanks for that, Limeni – way outside my area of knowledge. [I almost commented that a garage is not always an ‘attachment’ to a house – I’m glad now that I didn’t. 🙂 ]

    I’ve been out since mid-morning and I’m a bit surprised at the reaction to ‘jus’. It’s my impression that hardly anything on ‘Masterchef’ is served without a jus and round here even pubs serve stuff with a red wine / red onion etc jus – or a raspberry jus with desserts or duck. perhaps. Of course, as Cookie @18 says, it’s simply French for juice. [Chambers: ‘juice; gravy [Fr.’]

    Mr Penney @ 21

    Lisping would make it mithplaced, surely? [or even mithplathed.]

  24. I enjoyed this puzzle even though it didn’t have Paul’s trademark smut stamp.

    For the “H inside ASTRAY” parsing of ASHTRAY to work as suggested above the clue would surely have to have a single “butt”, and I parsed it the same way as Eileen. For some reason I struggled in the SE and the SLOTH/OFTEN crossers were my last ones in. The way the clue for CORKSCREW read I thought there was much more going on than there actually was.

  25. Hi Andy B

    Re CORKSCREW: this word seems like a gift to crossword setters and it has been extensively exploited – see the 15² archive. This one doesn’t gain first prize, for me. 😉

  26. Yes, quite easy, even thought I never figured out how the ‘sloth’ clue worked. Everything else was evident enough.

    There seems to be a trend nowadays to take chestnut clues and rewrite them so they are harder to recognize. ‘Corkscrew’ is an attempt at this, and it wasn’t quite a write-in for me.

  27. A strange mixture of trivial clues and some belters.

    I particularly liked 27A which I thought particularly brilliant. Why is this not just an &lit rather than “&littish”?

    Overall a reasonable challenge and not as easy for me as it obviously was for some. 🙂

    Paul seems to have “lost” his wicked humour of late. Perhaps he’s just busy with other things.

    Thanks to Eileen and Paul

  28. Re: mrpenney @ 19 and others, one of my pet language peeves in the U.S. are the restaurant menus in which food is described as being served “with au jus.”

    4ac was a lovely new phrase to me. Many thanks to Paul and Eileen!

  29. This was fun but, once more, not very difficult.
    It’s quite a long time ago since he really tortured our brain cells.
    As Brendan @27 said: “A strange mixture of trivial clues and some belters”, although I would have left out the word “strange”.

    “Why is this [27ac] not just an &lit rather than “&littish”?”
    Because “Does one produce” is not part of the construction.
    In an &lit everything should be either fodder or device.

    “Paul seems to have “lost” his wicked humour of late”.
    True, but there was a bottom today!

    Personally, I can do without an overdose of smutty clues.
    The smiles that clues like 18d and 20d produced are more up my street.

    Good crossword.

  30. Oh, and BTW, I had no problem with gravy = jus as in my native country ‘jus’ is a very common word for what people here call ‘gravy’. Nothing posh about it there. Even so, yuk!

  31. Hi Eileen, I was initially trying to make either RN + I or ABS + I (sailors and one) fit inside a vessel of some description to give the name of a port. When I finally saw the “one accessing vessel” definition I could have kicked myself because the first part of the clue is as chestnutty as they come.

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