Guardian 26,923 / Imogen

43 comments on “Guardian 26,923 / Imogen”

1. 3 down seed is ‘pea’, not ‘pear’.

2. Eileen – I think 24A is YAW not way. Is that not what over means in this clue? Yaw is “of a ship, to deviate temporarily from, or turn out of line of, its course” Chambers.

3. Thanks, Geoff Cleasby – I got my double Ps and Rs confused!

4. Great puzzle well blogged.
   Tempura can be veg as well as seafood (pumpkin is great)
   And wasnt bonkers about the wording of the ozone clue although it was obvious what the answer was-(at least to any drug dealer)

5. Shirley @2 – I think ‘over’ is the container indicator for R.

   copmus @4 – yes, Chambers gives ‘seafood or vegetables’ – and I wasn’t too happy about OZONE, either!

6. A very nice puzzle. I started slowly in the SE corner, but it all came together. Favourites were FORMATTED, MIMIC, CERVANTES and DROUGHT. Many thanks to Imogen and Eileen.

7. Thank you Imogen and Eileen.

   An enjoyable puzzle. I do not remember a specific puzzle to commemorate Cervantes who, like Shakespeare, died in 1616, good to see his name here.

   TEMPURA and FUSEE, in the timepiece sense, were new to me. MIMIC, MENSA and SMETANA were among my favourites.

8. What’s the word for this? Alphabetical only in that all the letters are used.

9. Thank you, Eileen.

   A slow start but steady progress thereafter.

   MITTY was a nice groaner and I also ticked MAIN, STOCKHOLM, CERVANTES, & GALLIPOLI.

   Don’t quite make the OZONE clue work but I see the mechanism. The problem is that I think about is having to do two jobs. (1oz = 28.41gm).

   Tyke @8 Is ‘pangram’ the word you’re after?

   Enjoyable crossword, many thanks, Imogen.

   Nice week, all.

10. Thanks Imogen & Eileen.

    I found this a bit of a struggle as I didn’t know FUSEE, (wouldn’t fosse have been better?)CERTES, SMETANA etc. The cluing though was pretty precise, I thought. I don’t see a problem with TEMPURA as it can be seafood.

    I thought of ‘yaw’ for 24 but see that it wouldn’t work because ‘over’ is needed as the container.

11. Needed 2 tries to finish this with DROUGHT and GALLIPOLI being the last in, both quite difficult for me. Thanks for the explanation of CERVANTES which I couldn’t parse though liked the association with Shakespeare in the clue. Overall v. enjoyable and a good Wednesday morning work out.

    Thanks to Eileen and Imogen.

12. This was quite tough. I found that the east was complete before making any headway in the west.
    Anyone else toy with MOSAD for 7 (MO(B) + SAD)? I know that’s not how it’s normally spelt in English, but I guessed that this might be a viable alternative. It does require “group” to do some double duty though. I was soon disabused of the idea when JAVA became obvious.
    I particularly like MITTY and STOCKHOLM, but there are many other good clues too.
    Thanks, Imogen and Eileen.

13. Fairly challenging in places as we would expect from Imogen, and full of invention and disguise. Nothing to obscure – though I couldn’t parse CERVANTES so thanks for that. STIFLES was last in.

    Thanks to Imogen and Eileen

14. Regarding 24D (comments 2 & 10), Collins online gives “15. movement of a ship or other vessel” and http://www.schoolofsailing.net/glossary gives an example of use; “way and making way. Motion through the water; as in: We must reduce our way before coming into the dock”.

15. Thanks Imogen and Eileen

    I’ve never heard of MISSIONER (= missionary?) and missed the QUA part of SQUARE MILE and the HOLM part of STOCKHOLM; GALLIPOLI was entered from definition only.

    I did know FUSEE though – there used to be (still is?) a great exhibition on the evolution of clocks and watches at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, which demostrated what a fusee did.

    OVULATION was favourite.

16. Thanks to Imogen and Eileen.

    This one yielded slowly,

    In 6A I cannot see the purpose of the initial I. I think the clue would work without it.

    For 12A is Willi an indicator for German?

    16D may have been more obvious to those of us in Australia and New Zealand. Hey, Cookie, where are you?

17. Oops, I see Cookie has commented @ 7

18. Like Robi@10 I went for yaw in 24 (as in roll, pitch and yaw) but now see there is no reversal indicator.

    Is it still valid if you get the right answer with the wrong parsing?

19. Thanks to Imogen and Eileen. FUSEE was new to me (and had to be confirmed via Google) as was MISSIONER (and I took a while before catching Sion as holy city). I needed help parsing EVENS (rugby sevens was also new to me) and MITTY (though the Thurber story and the movie are among my favorites as a Danny Kaye fan). Last in was WARY. Great fun.

20. I liked OZONE. I was convinced it was OUNCE for ages, but of course couldn’t quite explain it. I think the clue is fine, after all there is a question mark there. I saw it as one oz = ~28gm. abouted. Nothing wrong with “about” doing double work in my eyes.

    Imogen still fails to excite me in general, however.

    Thanks Eileen for explanation of GALLIPOLI and the blog.

    No one else querying HOLM not sounding like HOME? Just me then?

21. Blank grid and blank faces for quite a while. Then the pennies started to drop. Steady progress then on. Never heard of missioner (and neither has autocorrect! ). Cervantes was last in. Thanks Imogen and Eileen.

22. Quite a few tricky ones here, based on what I call second-order knowledge – Recife not Rio for the Brazilian port, the Shakespearian certes, and so forth. Still got there in the end, which is what matters.

23. Thank you William. That’s the word.

24. [Hi Kevin, my father was not at Gallipoli in WWI, but after Samoa spent most of the time in France as a sapper, he was a civil, structural and mechanical engineer and drew the plan for the Vimy Ridge attack, when not active he helped the surgeons. Not sure of the date he returned to Wellington, so thought I would check and found this Online Cenotaph . I had better contact them.]

25. An enjoyable challenge. I couldn’t parse CERVANTES, not knowing CERTES. MISSIONER was new to me but clearly clued. I didn’t much like DROUGHT, but favourites included SMETANA, MINCE PIES and MENSA.

    Thanks, Imogen and Eileen.

26. Nobody has mentioned that this is a pangram – which did help me a bit in the SW, as looking out for the K and the W put me on the right track sooner than otherwise.

27. peterM @26
    Actually, tyke @8 did, though he forgotten the word, which was supplied by William @9.

28. I don’t really get on with Imogen as I usually find his cluing too contrived for my liking. (This was no exception)

    However, I will defend him against the accusation that the definition for 15A was weak. Surely the whole clue is the definition making the clue &littish if not strictly an &lit.

29. I’m afraid I must agree that the definition is ‘rather loose’. You could be valiant in securing water in a drought, but ‘lucky’ would be more accurate!

    Enjoyed it all though. Imogen is very good, I think.

30. re 6a – was Mimi a bohemian? I presumed that La Boheme referred to Rodolfo and his arty friends. Can’t find any impressionists called Marcelloc on Google, though.

31. Van Winkle @30
    I’m not confident in French, but I don’t think that Rodolfo would be referred to as LA Boheme.

32. AL@29

    I’m afraid I must agree that the definition is ‘rather loose’. You could be valiant in securing water in a drought, but ‘lucky’ would be more accurate!

    No it wouldn’t!!!!

33. Van Winkle @30, muffin @31, the opera is based on the book “Scènes de la Vie Bohème”, nothing to do with Mimi as such.

34. Cookie @33
    Yes, it is based on “La vie…..”, but Puccini’s title is “La Boheme”, which, I think, can only mean “The (female) Bohemian”?

35. muffin @34, “La bohème” is a way of living from day to day in poverty but without a care.

36. I found this hard going and abandoned it halfway. On returning I couldn’t see what my problem had been and it yielded relatively easily. Some goodies-MITTY,OVULATION and MENSA(LOI). Enjoyment rather delayed but–
    Thanks Imogen.

37. Having a bad week. Only SE gave me any joy here. Too many unknowns – several already mentioned in other comments. Had not heard of the following: SION (spelt this way – only know it as ZION), SMETANA, RECIFE, SQUARE MILE (in this sense), CERTES or FUSEE. At least I did get GALLIPOLI!

    Learning all the time! Thanks to all the teachers, specifically here Imogen and EIleen, and other commentators.

    I know what a pangram is, but can’t see it in this puzzle – sorry to be so slow!

38. Julie in Australia @ 37 –
    I doubt you’re slow – possibly looking for the wrong thing?
    Each of the alphabet’s letters does appear in this puzzle. (Usually not a coincidence; some think it rather clever and, on occasion, it can assist with the solving process).
    An excellent crossword, I thought.

39. Thanks Imogen and Eileen

    Battled with this one throughout the day yesterday and finally finished early on the train ride home when I finally corrected MITTO (not quite sure where I dreamed that up) and was able to get WARY (although I was another YAWer). Didn’t spot the pangram although it fleetingly passed my mind after REQUIEM and then promptly was forgotten about !

    GALLIPOLI was a write in with only the O-I at the end – it is still a major presence in Australian life where the landing (and very high loss of life) is commemorated with our Anzac Day that has become a pseudo national day in many respects.

    Was a satisfying solve when it was eventually finished.

40. Kevin @16 – I’m a Brit and I’ve been familiar with Gallipoli as long as I can remember, my grandfather was there.

    Nice puzzle, I liked OVULATION, couldn’t parse MIMIC or STOCKHOLM.

41. [Kevin @16, I made an error @24, my father made the maps and models of the terrain of the Ypres – Passchendaele Ridge area for the 1917 battles, as he did later for Bapaume 1918.]

42. I didn’t get on to Imogen’s wavelength initially and only came back to the puzzle today. For what it’s worth, I was a ‘yawer’ as well, and justified it by ‘over’ doing double duty.

    15 Too clever by far looking for a container for HOO 🙂 Nobody else mentioned falling into that trap. Also disagree with the definition. Valiant looking for water maybe. But securing it? You’d have to be deluded with dehydration or seeing a mirage.

43. Thanks Eileen and Imogen.

    I failed on 20 and 21. Mainly because I was looking to complete the Pangram and had overlooked the B in 13dn so was expecting a B in one of those.

    I was in any case feeling a bit unsure about STOCKHOLM because “Farm animals” seemed the wrong way round and the definition was city rather than capital.

    I haven’t seen Shakespeare’ surely for CERTES before so needed a bit of research to confirm that – found just 4 instances.

    So beaten, but generally enjoyable all the same.

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