Guardian 26,528 by Paul

by

The puzzle may be found at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26528.

I have often breezed through Paul’s crosswords enjoyably, but the last one I found quite a struggle. This was not so difficult, but still required a goodly amount of thought to bring it to a very satisfying conclusion. The puzzle is a pangram.

Across
1 BLOOMER
Slip in cowslip, perhaps? (7)

Double definition.
5 SALFORD
Auntie’s second home in proposal for demolition (7)

A hidden answer in ‘propoSAL FOR Demolition’. The BBC is often dubbed ‘auntie’, and Salford is the home of BBC North.
9 GREER
Feminist principles, did you say, in government rather extraneous, extremely rare (5)

First letters (principals -‘principles, did you say’) of ‘Government Rather Extraneous Extremely Rare’.
10 WAR MUSEUM
Here evidence of man’s inhumanity has friendly purpose? I’m not sure (3,6)

A charade of WARM (‘friendly’) plus USE (‘purpose’) plus UM (‘I’m not sure’).
11 TOE THE LINE
Comply with girl, one in condition (3,3,4)

An envelope (‘in’) of ETHEL (‘girl’) plus I (‘one’) in TONE (‘condition’).
12 THOR
God making brief point (4)

A subtraction: THOR[n] (‘point’) minus its lart letter (‘brief’).
14 SUCKER PUNCH
Unexpected setback, finding leech on horse (6,5)

A charade of SUCKER (‘leech’) plus PUNCH (‘horse’, in full Suffock punch).
18 UNQUALIFIED
Downright incapable (11)

Double definition.
21 XMAS
Member of a jazz band going west, motorway’s blocked for the holiday (4)

An envelope (‘blocked’) od M (‘motorway’) in XAS, a reversal (‘going west’) of SAX (‘member of jazz band’).
22 SPIN DRYING
Removing moisture from clothes in last drops of cold water, looking to squeeze them? (4-6)

An envelope (‘to squeeze them’) of ‘in’ plus DR (‘last drops of colD wateR‘) in SPYING (‘looking’).
25,2 THE GARDEN OF EDEN
“Thieves” cryptically, where first crime committed? (3,6,2,4)

‘The first crime’ would be the taking of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil; the murder of Abel was after the expulsion. ‘thieves’ is EVE in THIS.
26 INION
Having shaved head, servile type reveals part of the skull (5)

A subtraction: [m]INION (‘servile type’) less its first letter (‘having shaved head’).
27,28 CAPTAIN AMERICA
Old superhero to beat, I am a certain criminal (7,7)

A charade of CAP (‘beat’ as in “can you cap that?”) plus TAINAMERICA, an anagram (‘criminal’) of ‘I am a certain’.
28  
See 27
Down
1 BOGOTA
John books a South American destination (6)

A charade of BOG (‘john’, both colloquial for a lavatory) plus OT (Old Testament, ‘books’) plus ‘a’.
2  
See 25
3 MURPHY’S LAW
Certain disaster, the rule of King Edward? (7,3)

I take it that the wordplay references the connection between Ireland and the potato. (mr penney et al: the Kind King Edward is a potato similar to the Yukon Gold).
4 ROWEL
Part of a spur that’s further down, left to right and vice versa (5)

LOWER (‘further down’) with th L and R interchanges (‘left to right and vice versa’).
5 SERENGETI
Plain, quiet housing good: it getting erected (9)

A charade of an envelope (‘housing’) of G (‘good’) in SERENE (‘quiet’) plus TI (‘it getting erected’).
6 LAUD
Praise God in speech (4)

A homophone (‘in speech’) of LORD (‘God’).
7 OVERHANG
Threaten to put raven and hog in a stew (8)

An anagram (‘in a stew’) of ‘raven’ plus ‘hog’.
8 DEMARCHE
Month in river showing initiative (8)

An envelope of MARCH (‘month’) in DEE (‘river’).
13 SPIDER MITE
Arachnid covering cut skin layer in venom (6,4)

An envelope (‘covering’) of DERMI[s] (‘skin layer’) minus its last letter (‘cut’) in SPITE (‘venom’).
15 CHIPPED IN
Contributed, as a golfer may have done? (7,2)

Definition and literal interpretation.
16 QUIXOTIC
Impractical to team up with short, smart clothing? (8)

An envelope (‘clothing’) of IXOT, a reversal (‘up’ in a down light) of ‘to’ plus XI (‘team’; we had the German yesterday) in QUIC[k] (‘smart’, as in “look smart about it”) minus its last letter (‘short’).
17 SQUARE UP
Prepare to fight 25 as opposed to 16, say? (6,2)
The number 25 is the square next larger to 16, with the clues of those numbers having no relevance. Explanation added late.
19 BIKINI
Ridin’ with minimum of insurance, very little cover (6)

A charade of BIKIN’ (‘ridin’ ‘) plus I (‘minimum of Insurance’).
20 AGENDA
A report of sex in diary (6)

‘A’ plus a homophone (‘report’) of GENDER (‘sex’). ‘Diary’ strikes me as a loose definition.
23 NINJA
For starters, naturally I’m nimble — Japanese assassin? (5)

First letters (‘for starters’) of ‘Naturally I‘m Nimble Japanese Assassin’, with an extended definition.
24 GAZA
Old footballer disheartened, getting a strip? (4)

GA[z]ZA, the nickname of Paul Gascoigne (‘old footballer’), without the middle letter (‘disheartened’).
completed grid

61 comments on “Guardian 26,528 by Paul”

  3. Thanks Peter. Skipped down the first ten across clues without luck to the clever ‘thieves’ that beckoned, and the G of E plain to see. Cruised around the bottom half and up via the seemingly easy 13D: however, it needed your parsing, INION and ROWEL were novelties, but obvious. Last was the beautifully hidden 5A whose meaning called for Google. An enjoyable excursion, thanks Paul.

  4. Thanks Paul and Peter. Have you forgotten to parse 17d, or did you not realize that the numbers in the clue are consecutive squares?

  8. Got a bit stuck on SW corner but eventually got QUIXOTIC and hence XMAS. I also missed out on GAZA. Particularly liked MURPHYS LAW and WAR MUSEUM. Hadn’t heard of INION or DEMARCHE. Great puzzle as usual from Paul, and thanks also to PeterO.

  9. re 17d – I thought 25ac might be a reference to Madison Square Garden (“sometimes referred to as MSG or The Garden” according to Wikipedia) where boxers sometimes square up to each other.

  13. Thanks PeterO, most enjoyable. Cruised the bottom and laboured the top somewhat with the excellent SALFORD taking ages to spot.

    Curious mix of difficulty this morning from Paul. SPIN DRYING, NINJA, & SPIDER MITE at the easier end, and some less known like INION & ROWEL.

    Loved the THIEVES clue.

    Is a spider mite really an arachnid? I thought it was a different family altogether but perhaps someone will know better.

    Nice week, all.

  14. Thaks Paul and PeterO.

    Really enjoyed this, especially SALFORD, SUCKER PUNCH and ROWEL. The pangram shouted out.

    Rushed to write in TIE THE KNOT at 11a, then realised it would not parse. Also struggled with EPIDERMIS at 13d trying to find venom T.

    26a, should ‘part of the skull’ be in mauve print?
    Also, just in case mrpenney et al get confused, it is King Edward potato, not Kind Edward.

  17. William @13

    It appears the the spider mite is an arachnid (a class), but not a spider(one order of the class of arachnids).

    Stella Heath @5

    You presume correctly. As I recall, when I put in the answer to 17D, I had not solved 16D, and held off the explanation in case there were any connection with that clue, and then never got back to it.

    A couple of other correction have been made as noted. My proofreading was not up to par – we are on daylight savings time, and the UK is not yet, so I had an hour less than usual to get out the blog.

  18. Thanks Paul & PeterO; entertaining puzzle.

    Threaten seems more like ‘hang over’ than ‘overhang’ to me.

    I liked Eve in her garden and SQUARE UP.

  19. Thanks PeterO and Paul
    I found this quite tough in places and especially the North west quarter where I got temporarily tied up with Canota, cropper and then, when these were sorted, Martha’s Day and potatoes which last led to the answer eventually. Incidentally, I remember ‘spud’ being a common schoolboy nickname for anyone called Murphy. I missed the pangram but had no problem with Gaza.

    I ticked 10a, 25,2, 3d, and 17d.

  20. 3d is a lot of fun – yes, King Edwards are a fine old-fashioned variety of potatoes – or Murphys, or spuds (hence “Spud” Murphy). Those of us who like little potatoes can thank Heaven for small Murphys…

  21. By the way, I took ages to get SALFORD, and sort of stumbled on it by guessing that Aunt Sally might be involved, which accidentally gave me the right start, even if she was the wrong auntie.

  22. gladys, I did the same thing, guess the ‘sal’ at the end of ‘proposal’ caught my eye, but it is a real laugh, wonder if Paul did it purposely : an ‘Aunt Sally’ is a technique sometimes used during planning applications when the applicant needs to show that s/he exhausted all other options and needs to create false alternatives that are easily identified as unsuitable … proposal for demolition?

  23. Thanks to PeterO for the blog.

    I thought diary a very bad definition for AGENDA: an agenda is things to do and a diary is a record of things done. They are opposites I think.

  26. Thanks Paul and PeterO
    Mostly done over breakfast; just a few to tidy up when I got back in. Some unfamiliar words, but fairly clued.

    chas @ 23 – I’m happy with a diary being a list of what needs doing (i.e. an agenda – who writes diaries retrospectively any more?), but, for me at least, AGENDA isn’t a very good homophone for A GENDER – AAH isn’t ERR!

  27. There are one or two annoying things but not really worth mentioning, because this sort of work shows how the creativity can be achieved without resorting to the Guardian Book of Tricks. Some hedgehog-haters say that I deny creativity, but that’s just not right. It can be done in a fair way!

    I think 17d is impossible to get though.

  28. [btw there is an outpost of the Imperial War Museum in Salford (not far from the BBC).

    16 and 25 are two of the squares on the sides of a “3,4,5” triangle, which has a right angle, and is the easiest example of Pythagoras’s theorem.]

  29. Found this quite tricky by Paul’s standards, especially the SW corner – XMAS was last in after QUIXOTIC. Plenty to enjoy as always, including WAR MUSEUM, BOGOTA, MURPHYS LAW and BIKINI.

    Thanks to Paul and PeterO

  30. Hoggy 17d can’t be hard to get since I got it straight away (though I did just check 25a and 16d before writing it in); I am the slowest solver on this site. Probably it was not a case of solving, I would not have got it if it had been, so you may have a point.

  32. *sigh* Was I the only one to initially put “PITCHED IN” instead of “CHIPPED IN” for 15d? Seems equally valid given the clue…

  33. Cookie @30 – I was tempted to make the same point, but I’m trying to maintain a vow of silence on certain subjects. Seemed easy enough to me too thanks to the helpful crossers.

    [and I don’t believe for a minute that you are the slowest solver on this site]

  34. A timely puzzle to exemplify the pleasant discussion we were having at the end of yesterday’s thread – 26,527 Picaroon.

  35. [beery hiker, I am, because in the week, if I cannot get a clue, I put in the vowels using the check button, then try to get the word, and then parse it if I can. It is really cheating but I would take all day otherwise.
    I am improving a little and can usually do the Everyman in three to four hours without help.)

  36. Hoggy @ 31, that must be it, we have had quite a few clues with squares in lately, so I was prepared.

    [By the way, a ‘sockpuppet’ is an online identity used for purposes of deception. I love sock puppets and am happy to be considered one of yours.]

  37. I didn’t notice the anagram and I’m not sure it would have helped if I had- although GAZA was my LOI.Not a lot to add really. There was much to enjoy and I thought the fun element was back to Paul’s usual standard. Didn’t much care for XMAS though.
    Thanks Paul

  38. Thanks to Peter & Paul (cue Puff the Magic Dragon; in memoriam to the late Mary Travers).

    I needed several explanations here; thanks in particular for the potato one.

    Muffin @26: I’ve observed over the years that Paul has an unusually strongly non-rhotic dialect: his homophones only work if you torture the letter R until it cries “uncle.” 6D and 20D both demonstrate this feature. So I just say his clues in an exaggerated Boston accent (I know he’s not from Boston, but it’s the non-rhotic accent I do the best, and it makes me giggle).

    Speaking of Paul’s tendencies: who the heck kidnapped him and made him a prude? This is something like the fifth Paul puzzle in a row without anything scatological, and the lone “sex” reference here is to gender. Meanwhile, his great-grandmother wore bloomers.

  39. mrpenney see my comment @24 (and chas @23), I may be wrong, but 20d seems very Pauline to me. Incidentally, I do not keep a diary and am a prude.

  40. Hey peeps! Great puzzle, thanks Paul – found this a lot more difficult than we normally encounter with Paul tho!! 17D we get now, but we got it from the def, but also thinking about Madison Square Gardens being known as The Garden… Really enjoyed this!

  42. Paul is a setter who I regard as ingenious but always gettable – though the latter aspect, not today. Looking back, why this should be I don’t know. X?A? is hardly impossible, but I left it unsolved. I had SPIDER BITE at 13d, thinking it a cd. UNQUALIFIED needed a cheat. The pangram passed me by, even though I’ve been spotting these things more often. Maybe the brain just took today off.

    Mind you, I’m claiming sympathy at 24, for to me Gazza isn’t an ‘old’ footballer at all. Charlton is (or are). Pele is. Moore was (though much too young at death). But none of them fit.

  43. I did toy with UGANDA for 20d – “discussing Uganda” used to be a Private Eye euphemism fort having sex.

  44. I found this very difficult and didn’t get the nw corner at all. After much deliberation I put in hangover as being the best answer to the clue and this stopped me for a long while.

    What is a pangram – I assume this means the whole thing is one big anagram.

  47. Thanks Muffin for the parsing.

    CANOTA is also a South American destination, which threw me until I eventually pressed the ‘check all’ button. CAN and JOHN are both synonymous US slang for loo, BOG is English, but I’m not complaining…

    Thanks Paul, one of my favourite setters.

  49. A challenging puzzle from Paul which was well worth the effort.

    I didn’t parse the “thieves cryptically” in 25,2 as I didn’t see it immediately and the answer was so obviously correct!

    I didn’t want to start the “pangram argument” again but Cookie’s “The pangram shouted out.” comment made me laugh out loud. How much time must you waste on the thousands of puzzles which aren’t pangrams?

    Muffin @26 You are correct AGENDA isn’t a “very good” homophone of A GENDER. In fact they are not homophones neither does the clue claim they are!

    Blaise @ 6 “opposed” in 17d is used in the sense of facing or opposite. It has nothing to do with the clue numbers 16 and 25. These are just two squares which face each other or or opposite to each other when the squares are arranged in ascending order.

    Thanks to PeterO and Paul

  50. Brendan @49
    I don’t see your point – it’s the gendAH/gendERR (not)homophone I was complaining about. Surely the “report” intends it as a homophone?

  51. Brendan @49,
    I don’t see your point – the Q, X and Z are staring one in the face in the SW corner, I don’t usually look for pangrams.

  53. muffin @50

    I don’t believe that “report”, “radio”, “heard” etc imply a homophone. A homophone is two words pronounced exactly the same whereas the majority of clues suggest two words which could be misheard as each other.

    Cookie @51

    My point about pangrams is that one only spots them if one is looking for them. As they are a rare occurrence it seems a waste of effort and time doing this as even if one is looking for them they can only help with the last couple of clues entered. Even then this is only useful if the pangram is not already complete by then which is often not the case anyway!

    In this case you mentioned that the Q,X and Z made it obvious. So what clue did this observation help you with?

  54. Was slow for a while as when I had Thor and Captain America, was looking for a theme, then Spider(mite) suggested I should keep looking, but didn’t find any others.

  55. Brendan @53 – I’m very familiar with your views on pangrams (as I’m sure you are familiar with my counter-arguments by now), but Cookie does have a point – if three of J, Q, X and Z have been spotted, and given the knowledge (confirmed by setters) that most pangrams are deliberate, it increases the probability that the fourth will be there too, and some setters need to use obscure words to complete it.

    For the sake of argument, if I’d had the rest of the SW corner before GAZA, knowing that a Z was needed would clearly have been helpful (and I toyed with MA(RADO)NA for a while).

    😉

  56. Brendan(nto) @53, I don’t do the crossword just to solve the clues, but to learn new words and new things. For instance, in the last Rufus puzzle I learned what Nelson turned to his advantage at Copenhagen, today I learned that the BBC was often dubbed auntie and that there was such a thing as Murphy’s law. Looking for Ninas is fun too, apart from the fact that they might help solve clues.

  59. muffin @57

    I don’t believe I have expressed my views on homophones in crosswords.

    However your views on “near homophones” in crosswords do appear to be idiosyncratic 😉

  60. Thanks Paul and PeterO

    Found this pretty tough going when doing it on Thursday. It was quite a different puzzle with many of the longer solutions fairly easy to guess from the definitions, but quite difficult to parse. My solving experience was more getting the RHS in first and then battling with the LHS.

    QUIXOTIC, XMAS and GAZA were the last ones in. For 24d, I found the footballer as Jesus Gamez – but he probably doesn’t qualify as old !!!

    Failed to parse WAR MUSEUM, SPIN-DRYING, QUIXOTIC and GAZZA which is quite unusual for me with this setter. Didn’t know INION before and missed the pangram.

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