Guardian 26,417 / Paul

by

I was going to say that this is Paul’s weekly appearance but last week we had him twice within four days so who knows what tomorrow will bring.

A typical Paul with the likes of 13,19 which brought some cheer to a wet and windy (and still dark) morning.

Across
9 Contentious issue with which to juggle? (3,6)
HOT POTATO – def. & cryptic indicator

10 Director has dismissed head of school (5)
ARROW – [h]ARROW (dismissed head of school)

11 Good to join the dots, then picture finally showing European city (7)
COLOGNE – G (good) in (to join) COLON (the dots) [picture]E (picture finally)

12 Old sultan unfortunately recalled racket (7)
SALADIN – ALAS (unfortunately) reversed (recalled) DIN (racket)

13,19 Why might the earth have moved, when soft testicle on cat stimulated? (5,9)
PLATE TECTONICS – P (soft) plus an anagram (stimulated) of TESTICLE ON CAT

14 Pink boxes opening, showing material (9)
CORPOREAL – CORAL (pink) around (boxes) PORE (opening)

16 Pet silencer working fast — that should keep the little pests away (6,9)
INSECT REPELLENT – an anagram (working) of PET SILENCER plus LENT (fast)

21 Military vehicles go fast, stopping abruptly reversing past bird, say? (5)
JEEPS – J (a homophone (say) of ‘jay’ (bird)) SPEE[d] (go fast, stopping abruptly) reversed

22 Cheerful as a golfer? (7)
CHIPPER – def. & cryptic def.

23 Wrong skill shown by a backing singer (7)
SINATRA – SIN (wrong) plus ART (skill) A reversed (backing)

25 Bring about fifty in to Asia, cute bats (9)
ACTUALISE – L (fifty) in an anagram (bats) of ASIA CUTE

Down
1 Reported European drug smuggling in Charlie, for instance? (10)
CHECKPOINT – CHECK (a homophone (reported) of Czech (European)) plus POT (drug) around (smuggling) IN

2 Nail in strips put up in English city (2,6)
ST ALBANS – NAB (nail) in SLATS (strips) reversed (put up)

3 Try to look, as a searcher (6)
GOOGLE – GO (try) OGLE (look)

5 Business partners, a hundred strip off for the recruits (10)
CONSCRIPTS – CO (business) NS (partners {bridge}) C (a hundred) plus an anagram (off) of STRIP

6 Bird sees sign beginning to wobble in terrible gale (5,3)
EAGLE OWL – LEO (sign) W[obble] (beginning to wobble) in an anagram (terrible) of GALE

7 Connection in which hands held? (6)
BRIDGE – def. & cryptic def.

8,4 White to satisfy clothes for Covent Garden favourite (4,4)
SWAN LAKE – SLAKE (to satisfy) around (clothes) WAN (white)

14 Queen wearing bra, I suspect, among endless goods one’s handled in a shop (7,3)
CARRIER BAG – ER (queen) in (wearing) an anagram (suspect) of BRA I in (among) CARG[o] (endless goods)

15 Hedonist, after crossing river, gathering thoughts, initially (5-5)
LOTUS-EATER – LATER (after) around (crossing) OUSE (river) around (gathering) T[houghts] (thoughts, initially)

17 Someone in the casino, one upset about nothing, winning (8)
CROUPIER – CRIER (one upset) around (about) O (nothing) UP (winning)

18,24 A criminal charged? That’s shocking! (8,5)
ELECTRIC FENCE – ELECTRIC (charged) FENCE (criminal)

20 Customer from the East invested in the same on wood? (6)
CLIENT – E (East) in (invested in) CLINT [Eastwood] (the same {east} on wood)

21 The capital of a US state? Have you any idea, roughly speaking? (6)
JUNEAU – a homophone (roughly speaking) of ‘d’you know’ (have you any idea)

22 Strike off this, it’s unplanned (4)
CUFF – def. & cryptic indicator – ‘off the cuff’ is unplanned

23 Written in visa, temporary stuff (4)
SATE – hidden in (written in) ‘viSA TEmporary’

39 comments on “Guardian 26,417 / Paul”

  1. Thanks Gaufrid. I always look forward to a Paul. Alas the answers here went in at speed, so there was no time to dwell on the cat’s testicles and one or two other testing clues as the crossers had revealed all. Too soon over.

  3. Thanks Paul and Gaufrid
    Rapid solve, though I didn’t parse JEEPS, CROUPIER or CLIENT.
    I started with CHECKPOINT, and wondered if there was going to be a theme celebrating the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall – but there doesn’t seem to be one.
    I liked PLATE TECTONICS, though, having the first letters, it was a write-in.

  4. Thanks, Gaufrid.

    As has been said, a rapid solve, with the definitions and / or enumerations giving so much away, even without any crossers: ‘contentious issue (3,6)’; ‘hedonist (5,5)’; ‘that should keep the little pests away (6,9); ”military vehicles’; ‘someone in the casino’ – not much of the usual misdirection.

    Parsing some of them took a little longer – thanks for CLIENT!

    I did like COLOGNE and CORPOREAL.

  5. Very elegant puzzle, not I thought easier than average. Liked CHIPPER especially, because it’s a nice word, and I have to confess my mind went to some very blue places when working on the pink box clue…

  6. Thanks both. Would have been a bit quicker for me had I not plumped for ELECTRIC CHAIR. The correct answer, of course, is more fitting.

    Possibly being pedantic or merely ignorant of London musical culture, but wouldn’t a Covent Garden favourite be more of an opera than a ballet?

  8. Thanks Gaufrid.

    Because I can’t spell, I had to check REPELLENT and was surprised to find the adjective and the noun spelled differently. Love crosswords.

    Found this slow to begin but then a few falling stones led to the final avalanche and it was all over.

    Liked the dots in COLOGNE, and needed the blog for the Clint Eastwood reference.

    Like John above, I impetuously went for ELECTRIC CHAIR and then sowed things up.

    Thanks, Paul, and nice weekend everyone.

  9. A propos JUNEAU, I came across a mildly interesting bit of trivia while involved in a bar quiz in the US the other day…it seems that because some of the Aleutian Islands cross the International Dateline, Alaska becomes the most northern; the most eastern; and the most western of the United States. I share this valuable piece of information at no charge.

    Nice weekend, all.

  11. Thanks Paul and Gaufrid

    Wish the puzzle had lasted longer, but needed help with some of the parsing, for instance,
    5d, put CONS for business partners, but there is no such word with the sense I meant (confidence tricksters). People who play bridge have an advantage, same with 7d, first entered BRIDLE.

  12. Thanks, Gaufrid.

    I didn’t find this as straightforward as others have suggested, partly because the intricacy of some of the constructions made me doubtful about some entries until I had a lot of crossing letters. Fun, though.

    Favourites were CORPOREAL, CARRIER BAG and INSECT REPELLENT. CLIENT is nicely constructed – pity about the surface!

    I have remarked before that ‘wan’ didn’t originally mean ‘light in colour’, but rather ‘without a predominant hue’ – dark grey would have qualified – which is why ‘pale and wan’ is not tautological.

    William @8: that Alaska question is a favourite of mine, but the Aleutians cross the 180º longitude and not the International Date Line, which makes several deviations round national boundaries.

  14. Great fun as to be expected from Paul. Thanks to him for a very entertaining crossword and to Gaufrid for the review.

  16. Gervase @12, surely ‘wan’ comes from the Old English ‘wann’, dark, black (OCED archaic, of night, water etc.), related to ‘wane’ from Old English ‘wanian’, to lessen (decrease in size, brilliance, colour etc.).
    I have no quibble as regards current usage with white ? WAN in 8,4d, am sure that in relation to pale Chambers gives it, as usual (can someone check).

  18. Gervase @12
    You’re right about the date-line, but the deciding factor for west/east is still the 180 meridian, I think.

    For completeness, the southernmost state is Hawaii.

  19. Gervase @12
    You’re right about the date-line, but the deciding factor for west/east is still the 180 meridian, I would think.

    For completeness, the southernmost state is Hawaii.

  20. Sorry about the duplicate – the site told me I had already submitted the comment, but didn’t show it, so I tried again with an extra word!

  21. I must be the only person lowbrow enough to have confidently entered ‘Sinitta’ for 23a rather than ‘Sinatra’. I’m ashamed of myself.

  22. Thanks Paul, I liked the CARRIER BAG.

    Thanks Gaufrid for the parsing of CLIENT; I missed the Eastwood reference.

    I’m a bit concerned about what Paul does to cats, but good fun anyway.

  23. Gervase @12, there are similar problems with lurid in relation to wan, not relevant to go into here, except to say I’m glad Paul spared us lurid details; fortunately our cats are castrated.

  24. Thanks Paul and Gaufrid for a most enjoyable puzzle and helpful blog: needed help with a couple of parsings.

    Did ‘Kansas’ (city – Can-suss?) pop into anyone else’s head instead of Juneau?

    I’ve much enjoyed this week’s offerings. Thanks again.

  25. Thanks Paul and Gaufrid.

    I enjoyed working out the parsing on many of these clues. The only one I failed to get was 17d (CROUPIER) because I got fixated on the word ‘one’ meaning ‘I’ which of course it didn’t.

    Also, to my eternal shame as a self-described ‘IT semi-expert’, despite having all the crossing letters I had to concede defeat and use an electronic wildcard search to get 3d (GOOGLE). You’d think using their search facilities day in and day out would’ve made that the easiest clue in the grid for me, but apparently not! It will take a long while for these particular “kicking myself” bruises to fade away. 😉

  27. I got waylaid by entering COUPLE for 7d, which I thought was a pretty good solution – nice double definition. All good fun as usual with Paul. Thanks to him and Gaufrid.

  28. Definitely one of Paul’s easier ones, but there was plenty to enjoy as always, especially GOOGLE and the groanworthy JUNEAU. Last in was CORPOREAL after LOTUS EATER.

    Thanks to Paul and Gaufrid.

  29. I was just in the mood for this – most enjoyable.

    Although, like most here, I found CLIENT a little too cute to understand…but then Paul did provide an easy def to go with it, so all was well.

  30. I particularly appreciated the crossing of ST ALBANS and COLOGNE. The church of St Pantaleon in Cologne is said to hold most of St Alban’s remains, and a bone was returned to St Albans cathedral by a representatives of the church back in 2002. It would be good to know whether Paul was aware of the connection, or whether this was a happy coincidence. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2074492.stm

  32. Hammer @31, that was the mistake I made. Paul means the players of BRIDGE hold a hand of cards which they have been dealt, his answer is better.

  33. I also had BRIDLE and, while I too think it’s perfectly valid, I’m not sure I’d go so far as to say that it fits the clue better.

    How sweet it would be if BIDE could mean ‘connection’ – then you’d have BIDE holding R and L (hands). Or would that not quite count as an &lit anyway?

  34. I was BRIDLE too, ‘hands’ being a horse measurement. Plus ELECTRIC CHAIR until very late, when intractability of SW corner prompted review.

  35. I always like Paul’s puzzles and this was a typical example. I didn’t find it as easy as most seem to have done but this was largely because of my wanting 7DN to be SEANCE which screwed up the NE corner. Not a good day but hardly Paul’s fault BRIDGE is far better and, I regret to say,more obvious.
    Still, tomorrow is another day!

  36. “Hey, d’you know the capital of Alaska?” is an old, old joke here. I think every school kid hears it before he’s 8 or so.

    More Juneau trivia for you: It is the only state or provincial capital on the North American mainland that cannot be reached by road from any of the others. (That is, although it’s on the mainland, it is not on the road network.) Note that you CAN get to most other parts of Alaska by road–the Alaska Highway connects Fairbanks to the populous parts of Canada and thence south, and Fairbanks is on Alaska’s own highway network, reaching most of the other cities in the state.

    24 & 26: The capital of Kansas is Topeka.

  37. mrpenney – I learned all the US states by the time I was 8, via the unforgettable mnemonic Nev, Neb, Dak, Dak, Arkan, Kan, Caro, Caro, Pennsylvan etc published in Time Magazine I think. One other sibling and I went on to learn all the capitals: I still remember about 40 straight off.

  38. Thanks again Paul and Gaufrid

    All of this has been such fun, especially Peter Asplnwall’s @35 fortuitous SEANCE for 7d; I have been chuckling on and off all evening.

  39. Thanks Paul and Gaufrid

    Only got to this on Monday after finishing the Paul Prize over the weekend – so a double dose … not a bad thing. The practice didn’t help, as I didn’t find this as easy as some of the rest of you. Was held up in both the SE and NW corners with COLOGNE, GOOGLE and ST ALBANS the last few in.

    Plenty to like along the way, with Paul’s trademark wit, clever twist in logic and the occasional wander into the ribald. Do like how he pushes the envelope with his homophone clues – JUNEAU was excellent once it was revealed – unfortunately from a list, as US state capitals are a serious weak spot with me.

    Didn’t parse GOOGLE (and didn’t even realise that I hadn’t – going with a cd for the GOOGLE verb) or LOTUS-EATER (because I just forgot to). Did manage to see the Eastwood with CLIENT though!

    Good stuff!

Comments are closed.