Guardian 27,299 / Rufus

33 comments on “Guardian 27,299 / Rufus”

1. A pleasant enough Rufus but all very straightforward. EXTRA #52…

   Thanks to Rufus and Eileen

2. I don’t think you are passé at all, dear Rufus (1a IMPASSE). I liked the DDs today – especially 22a DISCIPLINE, 27a TREATED, 28a THERAPY and 4d EXTRA, as well as two lovely anagrams 5d PERPETUAL, and 15d CAUTIONED.

   I am grateful for the Monday offerings such as this one which was do-able on a busy day.

   My only ? foreshadowed your comment on 7d, Eileen, as I thought it was not a very cryptic clue.

   In Australia, we call 16d mines open-cut, so that one, OPEN-CAST, gave me pause.

   Thanks as always to Eileen for the blog.

3. Thanks to both Rufus and Eileen.

   Enjoyed this with the occasional pause (OPEN-CAST and NAIL(LOI)). Favourites were STAN, IMPACT, PERPETUAL and particularly EXTRA. I like the way Rufus injects just a tinge of crypsis into clues like those for SIESTA and AQUATINT to save them from being just straightforward definitions. I know others bridle at these but it’s Monday, I’m on holidays under the sun and the snail’s on the thorn as far as I’m concerned.

4. Happy holiday, Alphalpha @3! [I very nearly quoted from ‘Pippa passes’ in my first sentence but decided against it, as I’ve done it before in a preamble of a Rufus puzzle – it just seems so right, somehow. 😉 ]

5. A good Rufus, I thought: TARANTULA, PLEAD GUILTY and EXTRA were my favourites. Thanks to R & E.

6. In the introductory note DIAGNOSIS (top favourite) needs to be corrected as diagnose.

7. Thank you, VDS Prasad @6 – done!

8. Alphalpha@3:
   Thanks for teaching me a new word today: crypsis. It’s the kind of thing that should be invented if it didn’t exist already – like God in Voltaire’s (just checked!) well known quote “Sie dieu n’existait pas, il faudrait l’inventer.” Enjoy the rest of your holiday and perhaps envy me setting off for 10 days in Porto on Wednesday.

   Thanks of course to Rufus and Eileen.

9. My favourites were IMPASSE, AQUATINT, TARANTULA, ABUNDANCE.

   Thanks Rufus and Eileen

10. Sorry, “Si dieu…”!!

11. Rufus shows that easy clues are often the cleverest.

12. Thank you Rufus and Eileen.

    I found some of the answers rather worrying, I do hope Rufus is in good health…

    As Eileen says, lovely surfaces to the clues I particularly liked those for PLEAD GUILTY, ACCOUNTANTS, DISCIPLINE, IMPACT, PERPETUAL and CAUTIONED.

13. Thanks Eileen and Rufus. A proper crossword !

14. I can be a bit of a serial moaner when it comes to Rufus so I’m pleased to report that I quite enjoyed this one. Particular ticks to PREPAID and TARANTULA!

15. Loved it we finished it can’t often say that

16. Alphalpha@3: just wondering what this quaint phrase might mean, though I guess it could be saying that all is right in your world:
    “I’m on holidays under the sun and the snail’s on the thorn”

17. OPEN CAST and NAIL held me up for quite a long time.21ac could equally well be CLIP and that’s what I had initially.OPEN CAST is fine but it took me ages to see it which meant that the puzzle took me much longer than is usual with this setter.The rest of this was rather good.
    Thanks Rufus.

18. Julie@6

    It’s from a nice poem by Browning (himself, not herself) which I remember from Palgrave’s Golden Treasury I think – going back a good bit here.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pippa_Passes

    and

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palgrave%27s_Golden_Treasury

    Eileen@4 knows more about it than I do I’d say.

19. Not at all,Alphalpha @18 – but I did remember not so long ago saying something like ‘Rufus on Monday, Alls right with the world’, having looked up the poem to remind myself.

20. I am glad to see people praising Rufus on here for once. I really enjoyed it, only 17 and 12 raised any hackles and far outweighed by some very neat surfaces on other clues.

21. Thanks both,

    A less elegant version …

    ‘Spring is sprung, da grass is ris,
    I wonder where da boidies is?
    Why, da boid is on da wing!
    Now ain’t dat absoid,
    I always tought da wing was on da boid!’

22. Thanks to Rufus and Eileen. As usual I paused over several items (e.g., AQUATINT, OPEN-CAST) but enjoyed this Monday outing.

23. Like everyone else we found this enjoyable and mainly straightforward – the only hiccough was of my own making as having bunged in CO-OPERATOR for 11a it made 5d a very odd word that Mrs W struggled with. Eventually the error was spotted and the puzzle finished. Thanks Rufus and Elieen.

24. Lovely puzzle from Rufus. I don’t know how he does it. I found particular delight in 5d, PERPETUAL and even more in 12a STAN. Also really liked 28a THERAPY and 18a PLEAD GUILTY.

    Many thanks Rufus and Eileen.

25. BlogginTheBloga@11
    I couldn’t have put it better myself. For wit and clean surfaces Rufus can usually be relied upon but this was the best for a long while.

26. Sorry, Don’t know how the a arrived at the end of BlogginTheBlog
    And thanks of course to Eileen

27. Well, beeryhiker @1, it may have been EXTRA #52 and I don’t know whether the ‘more or less’ idea’s been done before.
    Perhaps, Paul (as EXTRA is the word he clued most in his long career)?
    I’ve not come across it in my decade of solving crosswords and I thought it was a real gem.
    As were PLEAD GUILTY (18ac) and PERPETUAL (5d) to name two.

    Rufus often gets the stick here but, while this was another easy puzzle, the clueing was surely above his own average.
    Some might say ‘that’s still not very high’ but we thought – like others – that he was on form.

    Is an MP a ‘legislator’?
    Haven’t noticed that and certainly not since the referendum.
    I’m afraid, the current mayhem [lower case 🙂 ] doesn’t help to change my mind.

    Thank you Eileen for a glowing blog.

28. This was a splendid example of how an easy puzzle can be absolutely first-rate. Many thanks, Rufus.

29. Sil @27

    How was Eileen’s blog glowing?

    I very rarely read the bloggers’ blogs but mainly come here to read the solvers’ posts. However your comment pricked my curiosity so I did read this blog. I would have described it as succinct but certainly not glowing!!

30. You very rarely read the blogger’s blogs?
    That’s quite some confession.
    However your comment pricked my curiosity so I did read this blog.
    Anything to say about this puzzle, perhaps?
    I had.

31. An enjoyable canter through the grid on waking this Tuesday morning. Nearly a clear round, but earned four faults by entering CLIP at 21a . . .

32. Sil @30

    Hi Sil

    You very rarely read the blogger’s blogs?
    That’s quite some confession.

    How bizarre! Why is that a “confession”? Is blog reading a dogma of the “S&B set”?

    First of all I have no need to read the blogs as I have almost always completed and parsed the puzle. Secondly even when I do I often find them a little wearisome and cliquey.

    Therefore I only read the comments as they hopefully reflect a reaction to the puzzle by the general “solvership”.

    My opinions of Rufus puzzles are well documented on here and equally well disliked by the “Rufusophiles”. Consequently I only comment on Rufus when his puzzles are really appalling.

    Just for your information I found this puzzle quite good for a Rufus. Only a couple of non-cryptic clues and no dodgy DDs. (Almost a cryptic in the more normal style of our other setters!)

    I note you avoided telling us how Eileen’s blog was “glowing” 😉

33. BNTO, one of the meanings of ‘glowing’ is, if I’m well-informed, ‘highly enthusiastic’.
    Eileen talked about “lovely surfaces throughout, as always, which raised several smiles along the way“.
    Words not used very often in a Rufus blog.
    So, that’s why – nothing more, nothing less.

    Just like you, I hardly ever comment on Rufus puzzles nowadays.
    The main difference is, however, the reason for it.
    I only comment when I think a crossword has some lovely touches, as was the case today.
    You say: “ I only comment on Rufus when his puzzles are really appalling“.
    To each his own, but I don’t think I’d ever call(ed) a crossword appalling.

    As to reading the blog, well, that’s indeed completely up to you.
    Is blog reading a dogma of the “S&B set”?
    (….) when I do I often find them a little wearisome and cliquey
    It’s clear what you think, it’s pointless to argue about it.
    But please keep in mind that all bloggers are volunteers, giving up a part of their free time to write a meaningful and hopefully well-appreciated blog.
    Without them there would be no Fifteensquared.

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