Guardian 27,128 / Vlad

66 comments on “Guardian 27,128 / Vlad”

1. Yes, very tough indeed – took me a couple of hours interspersed with a bit of breakfast. But an excellent puzzle. My favourites include TWITTER DIPLOMACY, REDBREAST, MAYORAL and ANTITOXIN. Many thanks to Vlad and Gaufrid.

2. Started with Sides and Simpatico which got me going. Steady progress though held up by entering nanometer which i would think is an alternative spelling. Had to check ester and taxon which are new to me. Good challenge though!

3. Thanks, Gaufrid – a tough one, as you say, but very clever and most rewarding.

   My favourites were 1,10 and 5,27ac and 3,6, 8 and 17dn but there wasn’t a dud clue anywhere.

   On the first pass, I was double-bluffed at 14dn, thinking I was looking for a French leader but that was before I twigged the now familiar and seemingly inexhaustible theme. As I said the other day, I don’t know how these clever setters keep coming up with such witty clues.

   It’s perhaps worth explaining the ‘6, not 3’ in 18dn: it was Franklin D, not Teddy, who offered the NEW DEAL.

   Many thanks to Vlad – I really enjoyed the challenge.

4. Three quite tough themed ones in a row now, Tramp and Puck and Vlad, all three solid and satisfying. I like the way DT hovers over this one but, unlike in Private Eye passim, is unmentioned apart from obliquely in 1,10, and in another way in the Roosevelt/Nixon and Boris/May clues – and 14 and 20 and 23a as well! – maybe others if you keep looking… Great work. Had not heard of TAXON but nothing else was possible. Thank you to both.

5. Thanks Vlad and Gaufrid

   I found it very hard to get started, but once I had a few letters it went in steadily enough, though with question marks against some of the parsings. Most were eventually sorted, but I didn’t see the AGA in 23d, and thought the “less respected leader” in ANTITOXIN was TITO, so I couldn’t7 get the bird.

   btw was Teddy Roosevelt a “respected leader”? I got the impression that he was regarded as a bit of a joke.

   I think I’ve seen a similar clue for IGUANODON before. Perhaps beeryhiker could help?

6. muffin @5

   Have you ever used the ‘Site search’ facility under the calendar at the top right hand corner of this page? I’ve just found IGUANODON from Paul, Crucible, Mudd and Imogen [and there are more], all featuring droppings / dung / poop. 😉

7. I think I’m slowly getting on Vlad’s wavelength. His first few appearances, almost nothing; then some near-misses, but shouting at clues for what I saw as wilful obscurities and clever-clever devices; now, today for the first time, a solve which was just the sort of mental workout, as Gaufrid put it, that keeps me going. And barely a dodgy surface or implausible parsing the whole puzzle long.

   But maybe it’s just a temporary drop down to my level and next time will see my comeuppance.

8. Good tip, Eileen – I’d forgotten about that facility.

   The Imogen clue is very similar to today’s.

9. Very difficult, I agree, and for a while, with some of the down clues I had filled in, I flirted with Counter Espionage for 1, 10 Across…

10. Many thanks, Gaufrid, pretty tough for me, too.

    Not helped by misspelling NANOMET(ER) which presumably is a very small meter of some sort.

    Also got hung up on trying to fit ANTITOXIN around Tito (not a frightfully well-respected leader, perhaps).

    Other than that, planty to admire but I found this one a little less satisfying than his previous offerings – some of the constructions a little contrived.

    Many thanks, Vlad, nice week, all.

11. Rewolf, William, a nanometre is a one thousand millionth of a metre. There is no word nanometer according to OED.

12. Thanks Vlad and Gaufrid; I’m glad he too found it tough.

    My computer and I ground this one out, although I felt some of the clues, like William @10 were rather contrived (although maybe just sour grapes because I didn’t see them at first.)

    In ‘British’ English, -metre is generally used for lengths and -meter for instruments e.g. nanometre and manometer.

    Can ‘travel’ in that position really work as an anagrind? I thought it would have to be travelling, travelled or some such.

13. I’m glad I wasn’t busy today as this took several cups and glasses and more than one sitting. But so enjoyable. Thanks Vlad and Peto.

14. Jasco @11; nanometer is the American spelling of nanometre.

15. Thanks both. Tough but fair.
    {muffin @5 – compared with the present incumbent, even “Hopalong” Reagan and Dubya seem like respected leaders, so Teddy fits the bill!}

16. P.S. nanometer is in the online OED.

17. 15ac Annie Hall is surely a film not (like, for example, the Mona Lisa) a picture?

18. Like Robi@12 I had to use too much computer help with this tough puzzle. For instance, guesses for 12a ESTER, 21a WONGA, 26a TAXON, 22d NAIRN, all had to be verified along the way.

    I was with Rewolf@2 and William@10 in putting in NANOMETER rather than NANOMETRE, which meant 16d NEEDINESS took me ages to solve. I also saw (as did others) TITO rather than NIXON as the fodder for 17d ANTITOXIN, so failed to parse it.

    I know the Trump allusions were a bit subtle but I was quite excited to get 5a27a ABRAHAM LINCOLN and 3d6d TEDDY ROOSEVELT reasonably early on, thinking the theme was “worthy” US Presidents, but except for the reference to FDR in 18d NEW DEAL (and when I saw it, to the less respected NIXON in 17d ANTITOXIN), I was left with a vague sense of disappointment that my predicted theme had not come to fruition.

    When I enjoy a puzzle, I circle my favourite clues – those constructions I think are clever or satisfying. No circles on this one, but that being said, I do bow to others’ affirmations, their sense of satisfaction and their superior solving powers.

    With thanks to Vlad and Gaufrid.

19. Thank you Vlad and Gaufrid.

    Hard going, but enjoyable, and especially so after solving TWITTER DIPLOMACY! I tried to parse NEW DEAL working back from DELANO, DELA NEW (over), but it does not really work (Theodore’s was the “Square Deal”).

20. Tough but enjoyable – don’t know what’s going on with Nr Lincoln, but that’s the third time he’s appeared in a crossword in the last week.

    Thanks to Vlad for the brain stretching and Gaufrid for the explanations

21. crossbencher@17 – if that is the case you better get on to the Academy before they hand out the Oscars this weekend. Not a single brush wielder in the Best Picture category.

22. crypticsue @20, perhaps because Presidents Day is celebrated on the third Monday in February each year, and LINCOLN was rated the top president in US history this year, as he usually is.

23. I had a choice to make this morning – either sweep up leaves in a 60 mph wind or attempt this crossword. Little did I know at the time that I had chosen the tougher option! Like others I struggled to solve a number of the clues and I was eventually forced to resort to electronic assistance to complete it. Thanks to Vlad for giving me a busy morning and to Gaufrid for parsing at least two clues which I just couldn’t fathom despite having solved them correctly (with the assistance of crossers).

24. Picture can be a film as in “I am big it’s the pictures that got small”

25. “Dosh,” I’ve known for decades but never, fortunately, have I encountered “wonga.” Could someone please tell me how long it’s been in currency and the nature of its origin?

26. Sasquach @25
    Chambers – origin uncertain
    Collins – C20: possibly from Romany wongar coal
    Oxford – 1980s: perhaps from Romany wongar ‘coal’, also ‘money’

27. Sasquash @25, I had never heard of WONGA either, Wiktionary gives this

    Borrowing from Romani wangar ?(“coal”), from Sanskrit ?????? ?(á?g?ra, “charcoal, coal”), from Proto-Indo-Iranian *Hang?ra-, from Proto-Indo-European *h?ong?l-. The English term coal was itself used as a slang term for money in England in the 18th and 19th century.

28. PS that did not come up properly on the blog, but was clear in the preview comment…

29. My mistake. I thought that the Grauniad was a British newspaper.

30. @crossbencher,@Van Winkle— US usage is almost exclusively ‘picture’ while that of the UK is mostly ‘film’. But the grown-ups in my childhood in Scotland always said ‘picture’. Cinemas were ‘picture-houses’…..There was even a Picture Palace in the town!

31. Thanks, Gaufrid and Vlad.

    As others have said, hard. I had to guess and cheat a little to finish it.

    20a surely PUDENDA is plural, so should be “areas”. Is it just my imagination, or is this a clue to outdo Pauline smut?

32. Sasquatch and others – WONGA is a payday loans company, lending cash at potentially high interest rates, so the word has come into circulation in quite a few news reports in recent times. That led me to the answer, as I suddenly realised why it was so-named.

33. Sorry -I meant Sasquach – my spell check took control!

34. Gosh! This was hard. The first Guardian crossword I did online was a Vlad and I nearly didn’t attempt a second. So every time I see his name, I know it’s going to be tough and this was no exception.

    As with others here, this took much of the day off and on. To be fair to self, I didn’t resort to electronic assistance but I will confess to using the Check This facility quite often. I doubt if I’d have completed the paper version. The theme helped – I’d not got TWITTER DIPLOMACY, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, TEDDY ROOSEVELT or NEW DEAL from the clues but, once Roosevelt fell, those others fairly leaped out at me.

    Plenty to admire and much to smile at. As Eileen noted earlier, setters are finding so much material in the present US administration – if it deserves the term. ‘Alternative facts’ came in very nicely and the clue for TWITTER DIPLOMACY, whilst it may be another anagram, is delightful.

    I’m OK with picture as a synonym for movie, film etc. Certainly used in the vernacular and I have happy memories of the Penultimate Picture Palace or PPP from my university days. Works for me.

    Thanks Vlad for the test and Gaufrid for helping me understand some of the clues I’d solved!

35. Tough indeed but after correcting nanometre (both spellings in our dictionary) we got there. Annie Hall last in. Thanks to everyone.

36. Thanks to Vlad and Gaufrid. Like others I had great difficulty getting started. I knew IGUANADON from previous puzzles, got MAYORAL even in the US, and did spell NANOMETRE properly from the outset but struggled with NAIRN, HEART, TAXON, and WONGA.

37. Dave Ellison @31, the word is usually used in the plural, if one takes ‘dude’ to mean a fool, as its root from German dialect does, one can see that Vlad was sorely tempted…

38. To: Gaufrid (again, bless you!) Cookie and Bayleaf
    Thank you all very much. At my age I’m thankful to be alive. To both live and learn is luxury indeed.

39. Thanks Vlad and Gaufrid. Vlad on top form I thought. Loved 8 ac. Not convinced by 12 ac though willing to be. In what way is er signalled by reinstated? I thought it a little unfair, too, to signal two names by woman and lady. And why is antitoxin a counteragent? Is a toxin really an agent? Minor quibbles. A very strong week. Yesterday’s still my fave by a whisker.

40. Muffin @5 Many apologies, I posted (@10) in a rush running out of the door and failed to see you already mentioned the Tito thing. I would normally have referred back to your post out of politeness.

41. Hello Xjpotter @39, ER isn’t signalled by reinstated, it’s signalled by ‘about to be reinstated’ – ie one takes ‘about’ = RE, then (rather loosely) ‘reinstates’ it by reversing it to ER.

42. In my youth,we always referred to the cinema as ‘the pictures’ and I still do occasionally:so I had no problem with ANNIE HALL. As to leaders,I don’t think any of those quoted was universally respected. Lincoln was shot after all! And even Nixon had his admirers-ping pong diplomacy and all that!
    I found this tough going especially in the SE. Looking back the cluing is rather good. I liked PUDENDA,NOTES, TAXON and WONGA.
    Good workout.
    Thanks VLAD

43. Thanks Vlad and Gaufrid

    Trailman @ 41: I don’t think that ‘reinstated’ is particularly loose, I think it’s just a novel/literal interpretation of ‘reinstate’ as ‘put back’.

44. William @40
    No problem at all.

45. I like Vlad’s puzzles, and I loved this one. I got to the stage where I needed to solve 15a (ANNIE HALL) in order to complete the SE corner. I decided to cheat, which I practically never do, and it turned out to be the right decision. (Not only had I not heard of Annie Hall – the clue didn’t really give me enough to work on.)

    Needless to say, the final third [as football pundits often say] was as enjoyable as what led up to it, and I admired both the execution of the theme and the variety of clever and well-crafted clues. Somebody said there were no dud clues. Just one weak one, in my opinion – the rest were excellent.

    Many thanks to Vlad, and to Gaufrid for the blog.

46. I thought the surface to 14 was brilliant in view of the row about the forthcoming state visit.

47. Thanks Trailman @41. I’m being obtuse today but I still don’t get it. I see that ‘about’ is ‘re’ but reinstated tells me nothing about reversing it, nor does ‘about to be reinstated’ which would also seem to imply the word ‘about’ is doing double duty. I’m not following.

48. Oh I see. Thanks Simon S. If reinstate is being used to mean reverse, as in an instruction to put in backwards then the clue does work. A poor clue though in my opinion. Put back itself has then to be used in a different sense. Surely reinstate only means to return to how it was, not reverse. Still, a minor quibble. Trailman is right. It’s loose, and dodgy.

49. Xjpotter @ 47

    As I posted @43, ‘reinstate’ = ‘put back’ which can be read as ‘put back(wards)’, ie ‘reverse’. Works for me!

50. Sorry Xjpotter @ 48, I type too slowly!

51. This was flipping difficult, particularly for those dinosaurs, like me, who try to do the paper version without recourse to the internet. I couldn’t complete it but was chuffed to almost get there and I’ve now learned two more words (taxon and ester). So thanks to Vlad for a strenuous mental workout, although the housework didn’t get done because of it. And many many thanks to the bloggers and contributors to this website who parse the answers, without whom I would probably still be agonising over how some of the answers that l got right were right, after all.

52. 26a TAXON was new to me too, and I was pleased that the clue gave me enough to get it and then confirm it. I can see why the setter didn’t want TOXIN there, but I thought he might have tried TEXAN. Never mind – I’ve learned something.

53. A top class crossword – very enjoyable.

    Thanks to Vlad and Gaufrid

54. xjpotter@39

    I think antitoxin is ok – an agent to counter a toxin, not implying that a toxin is an agent.

    From my dim and distant chemistry studies at school, the only thing I remember about esters is that some or all of them smell like pear-drops.

55. Muffin @5 — Teddy Roosevelt is widely regarded by scholars as one of the top 5 or 10 US presidents. See the scholar rankings at this site, for instance. As a driving force behind the Progressive movement, he made a lot of changes (trust-busting, pure food and drug regulations, creating the national park system) that reverberated through the decades in ways that most people regard as positive.

56. Ted @55
    Interesting. What was the “teddy bear” thing about, then?

    I’m possibly conflating him with the character in “Arsenic and old lace”!

57. Super puzzle. The clue for TEDDY ROOSEVELT is brilliant.

58. muffin —

    I gather the story about the teddy bear being named after Teddy Roosevelt is true. He was an enthusiastic hunter (for sport, not just for food, I’m sorry to say), but he is said to have objected to cruel treatment of a trapped bear at some point. The story made it into newspapers and cartoons and inspired some company to name their stuffed bear toys after him.

59. Thanks Ted

60. Very Enjoyable.

    Filled in the chemistry clues on first pass. Quickly solved once I twigged the theme. Fell into the Nanometer trap.

    Wondered if HEART was a veiled reference to Trump.

61. Cookie @37. Well, Whoopi Goldberg seems to think “pudenda” is singular as she uses “pudendas” as plural (in the video clip)! It’s a “phenomena”, all over again.

    Dave (SFBBTRMOP – Society for bringing back the real meaning of parameter)

62. Thanks to Gaufrid for the blog and to others for their comments.

    Re 20d PUDENDA in the plural is a common usage.

63. For 28a, I am sure I am missing something obvious but why does SA = appeal?

64. Chris @63: I doubt if you’ll see this as we are now onto another day, another puzzle but, in case you do, the debate about SA pops up regularly on sites such as this. It’s the abbreviation for Sex Appeal. Possibly a tad dated now but utilised by plenty of setters. The other two letter combination that can occasionally be signalled is, of course, IT.

65. A grey Saturday morning considerably brightened by a few of this week’s Times/Guardian crosswords including the G Tues through Thurs. And what luck – three great puzzles. Having all three fresh in my mind I found this the most fun – and that’s saying something! As soon as I’d solved the first clue (TWITTER DIPLOMACY), I knew it would be a joy, though I’m another who carelessly wrote “….metre” which meant I finished the puzzle not with a whoop but with a shudder!
    Aren’t we fortunate – three great puzzles on the trot.
    (And I’ve still Friday’s Qaos to enjoy. If I don’t stop grid grinding, and do some other things, I may be in trouble!)

    Heartfelt thanks to all our setters and bloggers!

66. Thanks Mark I am rather new to this.

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