Guardian 26,692 by Paul

by

The puzzle may be found at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26692.

A storm of envelopes (and envelopes within envelopes), which I found very pleasing; but that would not take much when accompanied by a perfectly ripe comice, Château Latour, and morbier.

Across
8 PICAROON
Self-righteous cheat to arrest or a flipping rogue? (8)

An envelope (‘to arrest’) of ARO, a reversal (‘flipping’) of ‘or a’ in PI (‘self-righteous’) plus CON (‘cheat’).
9 ICE BAG
Taking part in conga, be civilised about one embracing a rock group? (3,3)

A reversed (‘about’) hidden (‘taking part’) in ‘conGA BE CIvilised’. Ice was a rock group, but I still find the definition rather strange.
10 BULLET
Slug that’s no snail? (6)

Cryptic-ish definition.
11 CLEARING
Origin of crop circle on field becoming trans­parent (8)

An envelope (‘on’) of LEA (‘field’) in C (‘origin of Crop’) plus RING (‘circle’).
12 DAWN
Early rise in the East and set around West (4)

An envelope (‘around’) of W (‘West’) in DAN, an anagram (‘set’) of ‘and’.
13 MANIACALLY
Master murderer back with friend in a mad way (10)

A charade of MA (‘master’ of arts) plus NIAC, a reversal (‘back’) of CAIN (the first ‘murderer’) plus ALLY (‘friend’).
15 ADENOID
Glandular infection’s outbreak, one about to be caught by tot (7)

An envelope (‘to be caught by’) of ENOI, a reversal (‘about’) of I (‘Infection’s outbreak’) plus ‘one’ in ADD (‘tot’).
16 SOMEONE
“Anon” describing me, close to accurate? (7)

An envelope (‘describing’) of ‘me’ in SOON (‘anon’) plus E (‘close to accuratE‘), with an extended definition.
18 ROD STEWART
Singer rated worst, two-starred, and rotter with wads to splash around (3,7)

No less than three anagrams (‘to splash about’) of ‘rated worst’, ‘two-starred’ and ‘rotter’ plus ‘wads’.
19 IOWA
US state capitals of Indiana and Oregon wielding authority (4)

First letters (‘capitals’) of ‘IndiNa Oregon Wielding Authority’
20 VIEWABLE
Practical housing we knocked over for all to see? (8)

An envelope (‘housing’) of EW, a reversal (‘knocked over’) of ‘we’ in VIABLE (‘practical’).
22 OXEYES
Contents of boxes certainly flowers (6)

A charade of OXE (‘contents of bOXEs’) plus YES (‘certainly’)
23 QUARTZ
Mineral in a measure of liquid, unknown (6)

A charade of QUART (‘a measure of liquid’) plus Z (‘unknown’).
24 JOHN CAGE
American behind bars, enclosure with little room (4,4)

A charade of JOHN (‘little room’) plus CAGE (‘enclosure’). John Cage was an American composer, so the definition is cryptic.
Down
1 TITUS ANDRONICUS
America going after monstrous Sunni dictator, bloody tragedy (5,10)

An anagram of ‘Sunni dictator’ plus US (‘America’).
2 FALL ON ONES SWORD
Own up about everyone working and working on command, be responsible and quit (4,2,4,5)

A charade of FALLONONESS, an envelope (‘about’) of ALL (‘everyone’) plus ON (‘working’) plus ON (still ‘working’) in FESS (‘own up’) plus WORD (‘command’).
3 BOTTOM LINE
Crucial point: “I have had a most rare vision”, for example? (6,4)

A quote from Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
4  
See 5
5,4 MISE EN SCENE
Machiavellian in essence, setter is going about setting the stage (4,2,5)

An envelope (‘is going about’) of ISENSCEN, an anagram (‘Machiavellian’) of ‘in essence’ in ME (‘setter’).
6 HEARSAY EVIDENCE
This generally inadmissible, therefore a case for attention: advise criminal to withhold testimony, ultimately (7,8)

An envelope (‘a case for’) of EARSAYEVID. an envelope (‘withhold’ which I suppose is OK if you take it as two words) of Y (‘testimonY ultimately’) in EAR (‘attention’) plus SAEVID, an anagram (‘criminal’) of ‘advise’ in HENCE (‘therefore’).
7 CARNAL KNOWLEDGE
Relations dwell on vagrant implicating king in mass murder (6,9)

An envelope (‘in’) of LKNOWLED, which is itself an envelope (implicating’) of K (‘king’) in LNOWLED, an anagram (‘vagrant’) of ‘dwell on’ in CARNAGE (‘mass murder’).
14 APOSTROPHE
Mark raised concerns finally in biblical text, a preacher almost bottling it? (10)

An envelope (‘bottling it’) of OST, another envelope (‘in’) of S (‘concernS finally’) in OT (‘biblical text’) in ‘a’ plus PROPHE[t] (‘preacher’) minus its last letter (‘almost’).
17 BASENJI
Dog, wretched name James, scratching bottom (7)

A charade of BASE (‘wretched’) plus N (‘name’) plus JI[m] (‘James’) without its last letter (‘scratching bottom’).
21 BUZZ
Moonwalker‘s activity in the colonies? (4)

Double definition: Buzz Aldrin, and beehives.
completed grid

44 comments on “Guardian 26,692 by Paul”

  1. Thanks Peter. Same eyebrow-raising as you re 9A, last in. Sometimes Paul’s clues are so clever they’re dead easy: 18A and 1D eg went straight in. Lots to like here though from BUZZ to BOTTOM LINE.

  2. Thanks PeterO. I found this quite tough for a Paul – especially the right hand side. There were rather too many “solve first by guessing the definition, parse later” clues, at least for me.

    The rock group is a collection of ice cubes.

  4. Thanks for the upload PeterO

    I have seen 18a in a Punk puzzle I believe, that was my starting point!

    I very much enjoyed this, thanks Paul for setting a great crossword.

    @3David, yep a Pangram puzzle… 🙂

  5. Good fun but quite hard for me – couldn’t parse APOSTROPHE (thanks, PeterO) and didn’t understand ICE BAG or BOTTOM LINE (lack of Shakespearean knowledge). Favourites were ROD STEWART, CARNAL KNOWLEDGE, PICAROON and OXEYES. Many thanks to Paul and PeterO.

  6. Thank you Paul and PeterO.

    I did not like the grid, however all went in finally. Needed help to parse FALL ON ONES SWORD but had no problem with ICE BAG.

    ROD STEWART was fun and I did like CLEARING, MANIACALLY, SOMEONE, OXEYES, BOTTOM LINE and BUZZ.

    12a, should ‘Early rise in the East’ be underlined, and ‘dog’ at 7d?

  7. ICE BAG was first in. Certainly needs its question mark though. Didn’t know the Bottom quote but not much else fits. Wasn’t PICAROON recently clued by another? Are they trying to tell him something.

    There’s loads of lovely misdirection here. Surely I’m not the only one who tried to shoehorn in JAIL BIRD at 24a, or reckoned 7d was an anagram (‘vagrant’) of RELATIONS DWELL with a K or R for king. The two long clues on the R were largely blank for a while, then 7d finally yielded as I twigged that this was Paul and he does this sort of thing.

    Much more to my taste and ability than yesterday, which probably puts me in a minority of one.

  8. Thanks Paul & PeterO. I missed the pangram of course.

    I couldn’t get CARNAL KNOWLEDGE for a long time, which meant SOMEONE was the LOI.

    I was somewhat dubious about word=command but I see it’s in my Oxford Thesaurus in the sense of ‘word/command was law.’ I thought the three anagrams of ROD STEWART served to confuse rather than to enlighten; maybe that was the point.

    I liked ADENOID, HEARSAY EVIDENCE & APOSTROPHE.

  9. Mostly excellent but ICE BAG rather defeated me. I certainly couldn’t parse it so had to resort to guesswork which I normally don’t have to do with Paul. No problem with the rest although BASENJI has probably been flogged to death. The long clues were write ins for me and it was nice to see JOHN CAGE getting a name check.
    Probably the best of the week.
    Thanks Paul.

  10. Thanks both. I thought that 3d might have something to do with being able to see the bottom line of an optician’s chart – doh!

  15. Thanks Paul and PeterO
    My usual feelings about Paul, though I did like MISE EN SCENE. Several I entered from definition and word pattern, and wasn’t sufficiently interested to work out the wordplay. I particularly didn’t like having to convert James to Jim before de-tailing it.

    I would be a bit surprised if John Cage actually used bars in his music!

    For once I did see the pangram.

  16. A bit tricky by Paul standards – quite a slow start for me, but a few helpful crossers and a few semi-guesses got me going. Last in was ICE BAG – no problems with the wordplay but it took a while to see the definition. BASENJI is ever popular with setters looking for pangrams. Liked TITUS ANDRONICUS

    Thanks to Paul and PeterO

  19. Simon S @14

    Agreed, that is perhaps the simplest and most satisfactory interpretation of the cryptic definition in 9A.

    Cookie @6

    Underlining as you say. The site is being temperamental at the moment, but I will make the edits as soon as it will let me.

  21. Thanks to Paul and PeterO. I had trouble parsing ICE BAG and SOMEONE and missed the JI[M] in BASENJI but otherwise proceeded quickly through. Very enjoyable, particularly BOTTOM LINE..

  26. On Ice bag, does embracing signify bag, then. Finished this and saw hidden word but still confused. Help?

  27. I must have been particularly in tune with Paul today because I found this a steady delight from start to finish. And as is not always so for me with Paul, I worked out the long clues from the definition first, or, rather, I got enough from the definition to get the solution and then was sent back to the definition to fill in all the detail; which, as far as I’m concerned, is exactly how it should be.
    For me this was confirmation that Paul at his best as here is the tops.

  30. MartinD

    I said from the gitgo that I thought the definition in 9A was odd, but as far as I can make out the least unsatisfactory explanation is a cryptic reference to a bag of ice cubes.

  31. The Collins definition for ICE BAG is:

    1. a waterproof bag used as an ice pack

    2. a strong bag, usually made of canvas and equipped with two handles, used for carrying blocks of ice

  33. Thanks both. It is so very weak that it is hard to credit Paul with it. V unsatisfactory. It was my LOI which always raises the stakes. ( Enough ice bag, ed )

  34. I enjoyed this more than any other this week. Apart from a few clues that were too contrived for their own good, as discussed already on this page (one of them now being off limits for discussion!), this puzzle was a joy to solve, and at my level I would not like it more difficult than this. It was fun as well.
    Alan Browne

  35. I enjoyed this. I spotted that it was probably a pangram after my fourth entry (which was QUARTZ, and I already had BUZZ and OXEYES) so I was on the lookout for less common letters, but that didn’t really help with the remaining clues. I couldn’t fully parse ICE BAG (my LOI) or APOSTROPHE, and I forgot to go back to parse FALL ON ONE’S SWORD after guessing it from crossers.

    Favourites are SOMEONE, JOHN CAGE, MISE EN SCENE and the very Paulian CARNAL KNOWLEDGE.

    Thanks to Paul and PeterO.

  36. A good work out as ever from Paul.

    My only problem was with the definition of ROD STEWART as a “singer”.

    Thanks one and all.

  37. I had to smile at jennyk’s reference (at 35) to Paulian (or as most of you say “Pauline”). This year I have become a regular solver and fan of the Guardian crossword, and today I just knew what “Relations” would mean in 7d: the name Paul underneath the grid was an additional clue! One of these days this inventive setter will fool us all: he will put “relations” in a clue and the answer will be INLAWS.
    Alan Browne

  38. A great puzzle from Paul. I had no problem with any of the clues and feel that the “knockers” are being unnecessarily picky.

    9A is clear as day both in cluing and defintion. See SOED

    ice bag an ice-filled rubber bag for medical use;

    So it’s a bag which embraces a group of ice cubes (scotch on the rocks please!)

    Muffin @15 It would be extremely pedantic not to permit John Cage to be described a “barman” even if he eschewed their use completely.

    However he did use bars occasionally and here is proof in his own hand! Imaginary Landscape no. 1 score

    Thanks to PeterO and Paul

  39. As if the definitions weren’t long enough, Paul gives us 3 anagrams in one clue! Perhaps in another puzzle (with shorter defs) it might have been harder to hide that.

    I *eventually* finished, didn’t see ice bag for ages, LOI. I had ICE for rocks all ready, but the reverse hidden is very clever. Many thanks Paul for a challenge that has kept me up too long, and thanks PeterO

  43. Thanks PeterO and Paul.

    Great puzzle. Lots to like from BUZZ to the typically Paullian CARNAL KNOWLEDGE and the triple anagram at 18ac was a blast.

  44. Thanks Paul and PeterO

    A backlog puzzle (and first one on holiday). Oddly enough, I didn’t enjoy this as much as normal for this setter – had to grind at it on and off through most of the day. His long clues that I normally like, apart from TITUS at 1d which was my second one in and a write-in, were just hard work.

    Had to find BASENJI to change from NICK to JOHN CAGE (who I previously did not know). Last ones in were BUZZ (took ages to shift away from Michael Jackson), BOTTOM LINE (which had to be the answer and only wrote it in after Googling the quote and finding the line in AMND) and the tough French term, MISE EN SCENE as the last one in.

    Liked the triple anagram and the clever SOMEONE.

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