Guardian Prize 27,094 by Puck

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The puzzle marked an anniversary: the 50th anniversary of a gathering in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco.

The name of the gathering was the Human Be-in, and among those who addressed the crowd was Timothy Leary.  As the highlighting demonstrates, Puck has ingeniously managed to include many words and phrases associated with the event, all clued with his characteristic wit.  I have one or two reservations but I take my hat off to Puck for a challenging and enjoyable puzzle that defeated Timon and I on our first sitting.

 

Across
7 DROP OUT Don’t finish course after medic’s “nil by mouth” expression? (4,3)
The first reference to the theme, being the final part of Timothy Leary’s advice.  It’s a very clever charade of DR O POUT (mouth expression).
8 SAN FRAN Hospital fellow managed as cool place for uncool visitors (3,4)
Another themed clue, although I’m not sure why visitors would necessarily be “uncool”.  The word play is SAN (hospital) F(ellow) RAN.
9 SYNC Sky and C4 regularly record at the same time (4)
Even letters of SkY aNd C4.
10 NIGHTWEAR Swallowing tablet after messing about with gran’s pyjamas? (9)
E(cstasy)in *(WITH GRAN).  Another reference to the theme, although it was LSD rather than ecstasy that was consumed at the Be-in.
12, 15 HUMAN BE-IN Man, shortly this could be happening in 8 (5,2-2)
HUMAN BEIN(g).  This is the event of which this puzzle marks the fiftieth anniversary.
13 THESSALY TV presenter drops daughter outside hotel somewhere in Greece (8)
H in TESS (D)ALY.
15   See 12
16 BREAD Money key to study responsible for Everything I Own? (5)
B READ.  An unusual clue, with two definitions and some wordplay.  It doesn’t quite fit the theme, as the group Bread didn’t appear for the first time until 1969, and Everything I Own was released in 1972.
17 FLAW Broadcast story of 8’s mistake (4)
Americans (so including San Franciscans) spell storey (or floor) as “story” so this is a sort of indirect homophone, with flaw for floor.  It’s very clever, but I’m not sure that a flaw is a mistake, since it occurs naturally.
18 PASTRAMI Something smoked by old man, as Tim Rice’s opener plays (8)
PA *(AS TIM R).
20 TELLY Count given before jelly finally set (5)
TELL (as in tell, or count, the votes at an election) (jell)Y.
21 WAITING ON Serving as expectant mother’s second name (7,2)
WAITING (expectant) (m)O(ther) N(ame).
22 SHEP Small, once trendy dog (4)
S(mall), HEP.  For those outside the UK, this is the dog in question.  Thanks to Gaufrid for nudging me into making this discovery: my first attempt was SLED, but it was while I was walking my own dog that inspiration struck!
24 BOHEMIA I’m getting back into black tea, where unusual people hang out (7)
I’M (rev) in BOHEA (the lowest quality of black tea).
25 TIMOTHY Kind of grass skirts in Tuscany? Setter’s hot, dancing in them (7)
*(I’M HOT) in T(uscan)Y.  Another thematic reference: see 14 down.
Down
1 BRAY Trumpet player’s final appearance in 8 area? (4)
(playe)R in BAY.
2 SPECIMEN Some wee person, for example (8)
Double definition, with an excellent surface.
3 TURN ON Start recalling something that isn’t groovy? (4,2)
NON RUT (rev).  The first phrase in Leary’s celebrated advice to his followers.
4 MASTHEAD Where newspaper title shows old woman’s unexpected death (8)
MA’S *DEATH.
5 AFTERS Fast broken, eating queen’s pudding (6)
ER in *FAST.
6 FAIR Pretty good light for fine, sporting show (4)
A quintuple definition!  Bravo, Puck!
11 GATHERING Something pussy guiltily ate: two starters, then a partly gutted fish (9)
G(uiltily) A(te) T(wo), HER(r)ING.  Nothing to do with cats: Puck is using “pussy” as the adjectival form of “pus”, although I can’t find this usage in Chambers.  It’s also a thematic reference: see 19 down.
12 HYENA Discontented hippy girl that might be spotted laughing (5)
H(ipp)Y (having no content, so “discontented”) ENA.
14 LEARY Wary of alternative spelling, like king or poet (5)
It’s a proper name of course, but also an alternative spelling of “leery”.  Timothy Leary was once described as “the most dangerous man in America”.
16 BEATIFIC Attend primarily idealistic festival in California, getting blissed out (8)
BE AT I(dealistic) F(estival) I(n) C(alifornia).  Another thematic reference.
17 FULL STOP Weed’s pulled up after busy period in 8 (4,4)
POT’S (rev) after FULL (busy).  Again Puck is using San Fran as a synonym for America as a whole.
19 TRIBES Attempts to include black people in social groups (6)
B(lack) in TRIES.  Another thematic reference: the Be-in was announced as a Gathering of the Tribes.
20 TUNE IN Quantity of wine (or beer) a German’s needed to get to the station? (4,2)
TUN EIN.  The middle phrase in Leary’s saying.
21 WOOF Court female, as a setter might (4)
WOO F.  “Setter” here refers to the dog.
23 ECHO Leader in evening newspaper? (4)
I think this is just a reference to the international radio code word for the letter E.

*anagram

35 comments on “Guardian Prize 27,094 by Puck”

  1. I’m wondering if ‘Bread’ 16 Across is perhaps a reference to the sandwiches laced with LSD given out during the festival. I thought this puzzle was tough, esp. Shep and Flaw my last ones in.

  2. I thought this was great. I twigged quite early that the anniversary was 1967, but only after looking up the HUMAN BE-IN did I realise that it was it was an exact anniversary of that particular event.

    I think the reason for the “uncool visitors” in 8a is that (apparently) only outsiders refer to San Francisco as SAN FRAN.

    I was a bit puzzled by 11d, but I see that GATHERING can be “an inflamed and suppurating swelling” (yuck). I don’t think I’ve come across this meaning before.

  3. Thanks bridgesong, and Puck. Alas, the summer of love is vivid for me and most of this website’s demographic. 14D early on gave the game away although ‘wary’ seemed its definition and hence ‘leery’ its answer; only towards the end did FULL STOP (and so 17A) put an end to that thought. 22 and 23 confounded me for ages, the former demanding ‘ship’ which could scarcely be a synonym for dog and which made I-H- implausible for the last clue, in my humble opinion.

  4. Thanks to Puck and bridgesong. I managed about half of this puzzle last weekend, then gave up, and only returned to it on Thursday at which point I spotted HUMAN BE-IN and some other solutions appeared (e.g., the LEARY trilogy and TIMOTHY grass). I did not spot all 5 meanings for FAIR, guessed FLAW without catching the homophone, did not get the second meaning of SPECIMEN, and was defeated by SHEP and ECHO. I did enjoy the challenge.

  5. Thanks Bridgesong and Puck.
    Any elation seeing Puck’s name vanished soon. Guessing “Human Bein” purely from word play and googling helped get all theme answers except “gathering”.

    No way to know Tess Daly, so 11, 13, 22, 23 remained unsolved.

  6. 1hanks to Puck and bridgesong

    I picked up this puzzle before the corrected version appeared (although I only solved one clue at the time, and have only just come back to complete it); the differences are in 11D AND 16D, which have quite different clues. For 11D, the clue was placed in square brackets for no reason which was obvious to the solution. Evidently, either Puck or the editor was anticipating the change. The revised clue to 16D has a thematic surface. For the record, the originally published clues are:

    11D [Boil the rice, only 50% of which is needed during party]

    and

    16D Attend on a fellow in charge, showing great happiness

    My entry to the theme was 12/15A; since the title of the event is, I assume, a pun on human being, the clue does not stray far from home. 2D was one of the last in, after spending a while wondering why SPACEMAN was the answer, before the penny dropped. I did not know the second definition of 16A BREAD, but Puck’s generosity allowed me to get it from the remainder of the clue!

    23D ECHO strikes me as a weak clue, but I cannot see any better explanation.

    ACD @4

    There is another Shep, linked to the link that bridgesong gave, which you might have been more likely to know.

  7. Having lived near San Francisco for years, I can confirm that no one there calls it “San Fran,” so it took me ages to get 8. I thought 17A was, at best, inelegant. If you’re going to use a reference to American spelling, it hardly seems fair to have a homophone that is not even close for most Americans (and definitely not for those in California). I don’t mind homophones that don’t sound the same for me, but a clue should be consistently on one side of the Atlantic or the other, I think.

  8. Yes molonglo@3, I am squarely in the “Summer of Love” demographic and enjoyed a lot about those free-thinking hippie days of my youth.

    I was incorrect on three answers and failed to parse several answers. Like PeterO@6, I filled in SPACEMAN for 2d because of the thought association with a favourite Byrds’ song “I’m the Urban Spaceman”, although naturally the parsing eluded me because my guess was wrong! In the SE I had SPOT for the dog at 22a thinking how trendy it was to smoke pot in that era – added to “s” for small and that made sense. That gave me OCHS for 23d – PHIL OCHS have been a 60s singer and songwriter and the leader of many protest rallies (eg the Yippies Festival of Light in 1968). So I just assumed that he had been a leader in the 1967 “Gathering” too. That gave me no joy on the “evening newspaper” part of the clue but I thought it may refer to an unfamiliar UK newspaper editor or such.

    I did get 17a FLAW but like Ant@1 it was one of my LOIs and a total guess. I sympathise with ilippu@5 on Tess Daly (totally unheard of) but guessed THESSALY from crossers and some knowledge of regions in Greece.

    Like PeterO I had the abridged version of 11d and 16d as I did the downloaded version rather than going to the puzzles page of my online Guardian. Rather a pity in the case of 16d as I far preferred the themed clue in the original. Was the clue too heavy-handed in its allusion to the theme so it was withdrawn, do you think? And was the original clue for 11d considered too gross in terms of the pus reference, or perhaps too crude and suggestive? [And yes, PeterO, I also asked, why the square brackets?]

    Many thanks to Puck and bridgesong. In the wash-up I thought it was a tough one, as other commentators have already said.

  9. Thanks to PeterO for pointing out the link to SHEP that I had missed. Based in the US I did not know Blue Peter or Tessa Daly but I did spot THESSALY and checked my guess via Google.

  10. PeterO @6: I wasn’t aware of the alternative versions you mention. I solved the puzzle from the printed version of the newspaper and the clues are as published there.

  11. Thanks Puck (?) and bridgesong

    I hated this. After being more or less blank for ages, I reluctantly Googled the anniversary. Although I’m nearly the right age, I hadn’t heard of it, though I had heard of Timothy Leary and his famous phrase, most which I entered unparsed. I particularly disliked SAN FRAN, thinking “surely no-one calls it that”; pleased to see that there is some sort of explanation for it.

    bridgesong: my paper edition and the printout had the original clues (not the ones you have given). Oddly enough the interactive version (from which I did the printout) had the “gathering” highlighted and changed, though not, I think, the “beatific” one – certainly it wasn’t highlighted.

    I did like WOOF.

  12. Another odd inconsistency: the paper just said “An anniversary”, while the printout said “A 50th anniversary” (I didn’t notice what the interactive version gave). This of course made it easier for me to find the event through Google.

  14. Thanks both. Have you missed the extra definition in 14d “like king” = LEARY (i.e. King Lear)? Has a touch of “I’m sorry I haven’t a clue” for UK radio listeners.

  15. Julie in Australia: A Byrd’s version of ‘I’m The Urban Spaceman’ would be fantastic, but wasn’t it by ‘The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band’? 🙂

  16. Thanks Puck and bridgesong, especially for the parsing of DROP OUT, which was a great clue.

    I can’t believe anyone uses SAN FRAN; I have been an uncool visitor but I’ve never heard this expression. It might have been better to use FRISCO, which is at least found in a few dictionaries.

    I had of course heard of TIMOTHY LEARY but not of the HUMAN BE-IN event. Pussy meaning containing pus is in Collins.

  17. [Sorry about the brain fade, Tweeks@13 and nametab@15. Can only blame the drugs for my misremembering]

  19. Clearly I’m a tad younger than some correspondents here – I was still in short trousers during the Summer of Love – but I enjoy the music of the period so quite a lot of this made sense to me. I hadn’t heard of the actual event in question – though the solution to 12/15 was easy enough to get and a Google check confirmed the name of the festival. I wondered whether BOHEMIA might have been another associated reference?

    SHEP was one of those that took me, like bridgesong, a dog walk to solve and then required a check for the meaning of ‘hep’: new to me. A superb clue – though very difficult for those not brought up with John Noakes, Valerie Singleton and Peter Purves (as if you’d get away with that surname on a children’s programme these days!) Interesting how one’s childhood can be defined by the Blue Peter trio (and the Doctor Who – in my case, Jon Pertwee) of the time. And, whilst THESSALY is perfectly fair, again it requires an awareness of British TV which must frustrate those solvers based overseas.

    The odd clunky clue in this, typically clever, puzzle from Puck whose challenges I always enjoy. When there’s a theme I’m a little more inclined to be forgiving so I’ve no real complaints.

    Favourites include the delightful WOOF, DROP OUT, TIMOTHY (once I’d discovered it was a type of grass), SHEP as above, and – Clue Of The Day – the brilliant SPECIMEN.

    I’ve certainly heard SAN FRAN before but was unaware of the non-local usage. I solved GATHERING but had no idea it had the meaning it does here.

    Thanks to both Puck and bridgesong. Now off to see what Paul has in store for today.

  20. [Thanks Peter Aspinwall for going in to bat for me. Some slight glitch in the synapses, I admit, but I just checked our CD collection (fortunately it is alphabetical), to find the Byrds album containing “Mr Spaceman”. I came back here to say I was a bit right, and found your kind post had “pipped me at the post”! A little reassured that I am not going completely daft.]

  21. FFO, man! Thanks for the last couple of solutions in the SE corner, which others also seem to have found tricky. A tough but enjoyable puzzle.

  22. I’ve just realised I didn’t finish this because I made a muddly mess of SE corner. I had STAR for 23d which I thought parsed ok (and still think parses as well as ECHO) and GOLD RUSH for 17d which didn’t parse but fitted with a busy period in 8. Not surprisingly with these in place 17, 22 and 25 across didn’t yield. Must learn that half-parsed answers are rarely correct.
    Thank you Puck and bridgesong.

  25. Thank you Puck and bridgesong.

    I managed to finish after a struggle, I was living in Ankole, Uganda at that time and heard nothing about all this.

    The clue for DROP-OUT fooled me for a while, I wanted to use nil per os OPO but that left the UT unaccounted for…

    I make the clue for SPECIMEN a triple definition.

  26. Muffin @11: that’s interesting. We must live in different parts of the UK (the Midlands, in my case) and it must have been a last minute decision to amend the clue.

    Shirl @14: yes, I saw the wordplay referring to King Lear and Edward Lear. Rob @16: thanks for verifying pussy.

    Along with others I toyed with SPACEMAN before finding SPECIMEN, and I also considered STAR for ECHO (until I found SHEP).

  27. Robi @16, “Frisco” rankles locals as much as “San Fran.” Having been born and raised there, I’ve never heard locals use anything other than “San Francisco” or “the City.”

  28. I found this pretty tough when trying to solve it on the phone but when I was able to print it on Monday it made much more sense. Not a theme I knew much about but quite an entertaining challenge.
    Thanks to Puck and bridgesong

  29. I couldn’t finish this: five unsolved in the SE corner. I really should have got 22a, SHEP — but it would have been by ref to Elvis’s 1956 Old Shep, not the (unknown to me) Blue Peter dog. Similarly, I didn’t know who Tess Daly was, but the name rang a bell when I guessed at THESSALY for 13a.

    I was that close to getting 25a, TIMOTHY, and might have if I’d ever heard of the grass.

    On the plus side, I did get the reference to King Lear in 14d!

    On the SAN FRAN issue, a pity Puck couldn’t get CISCO in somewhere, (perhaps defined as a “Western kid“?). Frank Zappa, a Californian at least, uses “Frisco” in the line “Well, I’m goin’ up to Frisco to join a psychedelic band” in the song Flower Punk (Daily Motion video — 30s ad first), from We’re Only In It For The Money — though very much from the point of view of one of those “uncool visitors”.

    An enjoyable, if ultimately frustrating puzzle for me. Thanks for the enlightenment, Bridgesong.

  30. Frank Zappa grew up in Southern California, and so from a San Franciscan’s point of view would have been “uncool.” In 1918, a San Francisco judge threatened a litigant from Los Angeles with contempt for repeatedly using the term “Frisco.” Saying “San Fran” would probably have been capital offense, or grounds for committal (i.e., sectioning).

  31. [@Ian SW3

    Haha! The home of the free! Bet the judge was wearing a bootlace necktie.

    I’m sure Zappa wouldn’t have minded being thought “uncool” by SF’ans. Ever seen this YouTube clip of a clean-shaven, besuited young FZ doing a cool piece of self-promotion, playing the bicycle on the Steve Allen Show?]

  33. [@Mark

    Nice link. I like the fact that fresco means “cool” in Spanish. Anyway, at least they don’t say “Don’t call it San Fran!”]

  34. Sorry for comingto the party late [I do have a life outside crosswords].

    I found this quite difficult but once each penny dropped, I saw the cleverness.

    Julie @8 I’m probably a similar demographic, but I think that, “If you can remember the sixties, you weren’t really there” applies to me.

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