Guardian 26,867 / Rufus

61 comments on “Guardian 26,867 / Rufus”

1. Yes, a gentle stroll with Rufus. I liked DAMNATION, RATES and TIBET. I had to check EXEAT as I didn’t know whether it represented a permission to be away, as opposed to just a holiday. Thanks to Rufus and Gaufrid.

2. Thanks Rufus and Gaufrid

   I didn’t find it easy to finish, as I took some time to get URNS and TIBET (which I liked) and RATES (which I didn’t like). It being Rufus, I had confidently written in EYRIE for TIBET, but the crossers quickly showed this to be wrong. Incidentally a TASKMASTER isn’t necessarily “demanding”; the phrase he is alluding to is “hard taskmaster”.

   I knew EXEAT, but in relation to University rather than school – posh schools only?

   I liked DAMNATION and CALVE in particular.

3. Quite liked 21D when I realised what it was getting at.

4. Writing in Ranks didn’t help with Tibet, but I found this more to my taste than many Rufi… fewer of the ho-hums…and enjoyed it.

5. westdale@4 – I also tried RANKS at 20a at first!

   I found this to be one of Rufus’s more difficult puzzles. I failed to solve 29d and 31a and could not parse 20a and 24d.

   New word for me (or very dimly remembered) was REREDOS.

   Thanks Gaufrid and Rufus.

6. Thanks Gaufrid and Rufus.

   I particularly liked the simplicity and construction of FRAU clue.

   Two E S in 24d and 29d; I didn’t recognise the significance of “cardinals” (points of compass) till I came here

7. As it was RANKS at 16dn that showed me that EYRIE at 20ac was wrong, it took a little while to sort that out. I knew EXEAT from Uni, so no problem there.

8. Lots to like here.

   I didn’t know EXEAT either – clearly didn’t go to the right school, or university, as I had to make do with being my own BEDMAKER.

   The rest were all familiar, fair and fun to solve. I particularly liked FRAU and EATS.

   Thanks Rufus and Gaufrid.

9. Thank you Rufus and Gaufrid.

   I really enjoy Rufus puzzles since I can usually finish them.

   Today, however, I was held up by FRAU. I only know the term “Ihre Frau Mutter”, “your lady mother”, FRAU meaning woman, wife, lady or madam in German, but I suppose mother can mean Mrs in English, e.g. “knees up Mother Brown” ?

   KEELS, COLOSSI, DAMNATION and CALVE were fun. I, too, was fooled for a while by TIBET having entered EYRIE!

10. Thanks to Rufus and Gaufrid. I finished this one quickly and was slowed down not by TIBET but by BEDMAKER (a term new to me in a university context) and EXEAT which I had to look up as a certificate but knew from its occasional use as a stage direction (let him/her exit). Great fun.

11. Had to cheat a bit to get EXEAT which I hadn’t heard of. CHORTLES was hardly cryptic at all and wouldn’t have been out of place in the quick crossword.

    But mostly enjoyable as usual from Rufus. I particularly liked DAMNATION.

12. Jims@11 I got the word but not the connection to Carroll, as I didn’t know its origin – though as it required specific knowledge rather than cryptic dexterity you might be write that it belonged in a more literal crossword.

    Can someone explain why Dam = Mother? It was one of my first ones in but not wholly parsed.

13. bobloblaw @12
    From Chambers: dam² – A mother, usu of cattle, horses, etc

14. EXEAT, BEDMAKER, and U for “well-bred” betray too much poshness for me, and TALC is (Chambers) a moisture-absorber, not something that “eases sores”. And the usual number of so-called cryptic clues that make me by a different broadsheet on a Monday so often. Roll on Tuesday.

15. Anyone tell me why ‘U’ means well bred?

16. Aztecmike@15 U should know by now.

    Wasnt tempted by “eyrie” as Chambers probably lists multiple spellings!

17. Aztecmike @ 15: U = upper class. I seem to remember that it was used as slang by the Mitfords, and has entered into common crossword parlance.

18. . . . “The debate was set in motion in 1954 by the British linguist Alan S. C. Ross, professor of linguistics in the University of Birmingham. He coined the terms “U” and “non-U” in an article, on the differences that social class makes in English language usage, published in a Finnish professional linguistics journal.[1] Though his article included differences in pronunciation and writing styles, it was his remark to differences of vocabulary that received the most attention.

    The English author Nancy Mitford was alerted and immediately took up the usage in an essay, “The English Aristocracy”, which Stephen Spender published in his magazine Encounter in 1954. Mitford provided a glossary of terms used by the upper classes (some appear in the table at right), unleashing an anxious national debate about English class-consciousness and snobbery, which involved a good deal of soul-searching that itself provided fuel for the fires.” (from Wikipedia)

19. Quite enjoyed this, but was defeated by EXEAT – short of looking up every pair of unchecked letters in a dictionary there was no means of solving it for those of us who are not familiar with the term. TIBET also took far longer than it should have done.

    Thanks to Rufus and Gaufrid

20. Held up for a while by entering ALOFT (for pigeons) as a double def. at 20.

21. beery hiker @ 19:

    You could have used this:

    http://www.crosswordsolver.org/

22. offspinner @21 – yes, and I could have used the Check button one letter at a time, but neither of these methods counts as solving the clue.

23. This American had never heard of an EXEAT, and also had to cheat on BEDMAKER. (And I had a fairly posh education, too.) I chalked those up to “guess you’ve got to be British.”

    Raised my eyebrows a bit at FRAU being defined as “mother,” Eine Mutter ist eine Frau, naturlich, aber nicht alle Frauen sint Muttern.

24. beery hiker @22 – what does or doesn’t count as solving the clue is an interesting question. I think there is a spectrum of “purity” in doing a crossword, ranging from: at one end, just you and a pen and the crossword, with no reference works, even a dictionary; to, at the other end, simply looking up the answers. I would say that using crosswordsolver.org is near the latter end but not quite at it. (Using that site was in fact what I meant when I said I cheated “a bit” to get EXEAT.)

25. JimS @24 – fair point. What constitutes solving is between the solver and his/her conscience, and given sufficient patience the Check button will “solve” anything. I prefer to exhaust your first method first, and using a dictionary or a web lookup to confirm something the wordplay suggest must be fairly kosher too, as would using the dictionary to look up an unfamiliar word used in a clue. It just amused me that I could cite this clue to claim that this puzzle was more difficult than Friday’s Enigmatist…

26. Easy as usual on a Monday except for the clues which weren’t. 😉

    When no obvious candidate for 31a sprang to mind, EXEAT seemed vaguely familiar enough that it was worth looking up the definition online, so I was able to complete this. BEDMAKER was only slightly less vague a memory. Like swatty @8, I didn’t go to the right school or university.

    Thanks, Rufus and Gaufrid.

27. I knew EXEAT but had to check the meaning. This was rather more satisfying than a Rufus puzzle often is. Like Muffin,I had Eyrie and tutted that it wasn’t very good. TIBET,on the other hand, was lovely. I also liked DAMNATION,REREDOS,RUNS and BEDMAKER. Quite a good start to the week.
    Thanks Rufus.

28. We found this quite a bit harder than a ‘usual’ Rufus…and enjoyed it more for that!! Can you guys help with one thing though: 24D THESIS – get the anagram of ‘this’ but why does ‘two cardinals’ define as ES???

29. Doesn’t 27A break a crossword cluing rule, that all letters of an anagram must be contained within the clue?

30. LiSho @28
    E(ast) and S(outh) are “cardinal points” on a compass.

31. El Ingles @29
    The “orate” bit is entered straight; no anagram necessary.

32. Thanks Rufus and Gaufrid

    El Ingles @ 29: there are no crossword cluing ‘rules’. There are conventions, but no one is obliged to follow them, and, from my standpoint, as long as the answer is gettable from the wordplay any device at all may be used.

    Other views are available.

33. Jim @11. I didn’t know that Lewis Carroll coined the word ‘chortle’ and so tried to parse the obvious answer on the basis that ‘first heard from Lewis Carroll’ must be the cryptic element of the clue. I agree with you: the clue belongs either in a quick or a general knowledge crossword but not in a cryptic.

    Otherwise I liked this, and found it easier than the usual Rufus because there seemed to be fewer cds and dds than usual (for some reason I don’t get on with those).

    EXEAT and BEDMAKER lent the crossword a public school and Cambridge tone. The term used at Cambridge (and, it appears, Durham) is ‘bedder’ (see E M Forster’s ‘Maurice’ for example), and I didn’t know until today that it was a contraction of ‘bedmaker’. The Oxford terms is ‘scout’ (for no apparent reason).

34. Disregard comment #29, I was adrift there. Put it down to my petulance at not being able to solve that one. Nor 8D.

35. Rog@33 ‘Bedder’ is an example of the Victorian WWI Oxford ‘-er’ which gave us soccer (from Association football) and rugger (from Rugby football). Ox ford had Scouts (male)as well as bedders (female) in the 1950s and for about 20 years after that. I am not sure of the customs in the Fens.

36. Re. 31ac — My school (in the 1960s) was a non-fee-paying urban day school. Latin was part of the core curriculum (endured because of university entrance requirements) so no one found anything odd about the use of the term exeat. If you wanted to leave the premises for medical reasons you had to ask for an aegrotat rather than an exeat.

37. Unusually for a Rufus, I had some good fun towards the end with my last four in: RATES, TIBET, BEDMAKER and EXEAT.

    Like swatty and jennyk, I had to make my own bed and never needed an exeat. I know Latin, though, so EXEAT wasn’t difficult. I never actually entered AERIE or EYRIE at 20A (TIBET) because for some reason I was reluctant to believe it would be another clue as weak as 2D (CHORTLE). The eagle’s nest (any spelling) would have been a straight, non-cryptic answer – it was finding BE for ‘live’ that got me to TIBET (so to speak).

    I had a few favourites, already listed as such by others, of which TIBET came top in my view.

    Thanks to Rufus and Gaufrid.

38. Alan @37
    EYRIE wouldn’t have been quite as non-cryptic as you say – Chambers also gives it as, amongst other definitions, as “any high or inaccessible place”

39. John E @ 36

    At Cambridge in the mid-70s, a guy a year ahead of me, who I had also been at school with, got an aegrotat first in his Part II. Almost unheard of.

40. muffin @38
    I beg to differ. One of the definitions of eyrie (in fact the first) is ‘the nest of a bird of prey, esp an eagle’, so the clue is as straight a definition as you can get for an eyrie. It’s only the crossers that disqualify aerie or eyrie as a valid answer.

41. We’re at cross purposes, Alan – my point was that one of the other definitions was “high place”, so it would be a double definition rather than a straight one.

42. Ok, muffin (@41): the double definition (which I admit I failed to see) is one of three interpretations of the clue, the other two being a single non-cryptic definition and the cryptic construction that yielded the only answer that would fit.

43. Alan @42
    I should have said “would have been”, of course. In fact the actual solution (TIBET) was my favourite today. However it wouldn’t have been out of charcater for Rufus to have clued EYRIE like that.

44. muffin @41, pagan @20
    muffin, I’ve only just noticed pagan’s first attempt at 20A (TIBET): ALOFT. I missed it on my first pass through this blog (sorry, pagan). That’s another double definition. TIBET remains my favourite clue today.

45. Defeated by EXEAT and RATES. I could do with a bit more explanation of the latter – the precise usages to fit the clue elude me.

46. Pagan. I prefer aloft. Pity it doesn’t fit.

    And hast thou killed the Jabberwock?
    Come to my arms my beamish boy.
    Oh frabjous day, galoo galay
    He chortled in his joy.

    Another challenge for autocorrect. In spite of most of the words in Jabberwocky being neologisms, I never realised that chortled was one of them. Probably because it is in common usage.

47. Gonzo @ 45: Honours = rates as in respects, or regards (i.e. verb); and degrees = rates as in steps (‘by degrees’, and ‘at a certain rate’). However, the second one seems rather iffy – maybe someone has a better explanation.

48. Thanks Rufus and Gaufrid

    Found this one an easy end to our long weekend over here – done just before turning the lights out. Seem to have had the same journey as many others except for tracking up the AERIE / EYRIE track. Had to look up EXEAT as Latin had well passed us by when I was at school.

    Had a slight problem with his definition for TALC but enjoyed it overall.

49. Thanks all
    It’s all! in the definitions isn’t it, Plus the numeration most of these are solvable with the cryptic beig an afterthought or in fact the non thought!

50. Actually it’s And hast thou slain the Jabberwock, not killed. Correcting myself before someone else does. Not that anyone’s still awake.

51. This was a rare attempt at a Rufus for me and I gave up with THESIS, ELABORATE and EXEAT missing. I have heard of EXEAT before but it is very dim in my memory. I especially liked ABSTAINER, CALVE and FRAU. Thanks to Rufus and Gaufrid.

52. Like brucew@aus I came late to this Rufus due to the long weekend. I enjoyed it though am with others who did not know what the word EXEAT 31a and had to cheat it. I have read the entire blog and somehow still don’t really understand BEDMAKER 21d, which I solved but could not see how it fitted. I guess have to put it down to some aspects of British public schools/boarding schools that I haven’t encountered. Thanks to Rufus and Gaufrid.

53. Hi Julie
    The ever helpful Oxford on-line gives:

    http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/bedmaker

    … otherwise I’d have been in the dark still too.

54. Julie. I think it relates to the saying, You’ve made your bed, now you must lie in it. Ie., you’ve created your own misfortune and now you must put up with it.

55. Many thanks, brucew@aus @53 and Meg @54. I see it now – especially the “proverbially” bit.

56. Julie @52

    Re BEDMAKER – this one puzzled me too, and it was my last one in. I decided to try and find the proverb, which I succeeded in doing eventually after trying and failing to find it by googling ‘bedmaker’. This is it, with a link to the page where I found it:

    “He that makes his bed ill, lies there.”

    Bedmaker proverb

57. Julie @55

    I see there was competition to help you out here, and I came in late! I’ve come here again to add that George Herbert studied at Trinity College, Cambridge (in the early 17th century).

58. Meg @54
    Your explanation of the clue to BEDMAKER is more credible than mine. The saying “As you make your bed, so you must lie in it” is not only older than the one I found but also a better fit for the clue.
    Sorry Gaufrid – that’s my last word on the topic!

59. Why is there an elipsis joining 28d and 29d?

60. Rob @59
    Because neither clue stands as a sentence alone. By using the ellipses, Rufus could link them, allowing both clues to be more concise than they would have needed to be otherwise. They don’t imply any link between the answers – they are just about the surfaces.

61. Thanks Gaufrid and Rufus.

    At least vI the asn’t caught out by the 20ac Googlie – knowing study’s I held back.

    I know EXEAT only because a grandson did a gap year at an Oxford prep school. I assumed BEDMAKER from the wordplay but had to look it up – and my online dictionary had it as Cambridge-specific. Either way, having gone to technical college, I had neither a BEDMAKER nor indeed a room (not quite a case of living in a shoebox in middle of t’road but close to the latter end of the scale!)

    What a strange world Oxbridge must be?

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