Guardian Cryptic 27308 Paul

by

One that is not so difficult as one would expect of a lead-up to the end of the week. Thanks to Paul. Definitions are underlined in the clues.

Across

1 Hide waste around Yorkshire river (7)

DOESKIN : [DO IN](slang for “to murder”, as is “to waste”) containing(around) ESK(river in North Yorkshire).

5 Spring collection firmly established (4-3)

WELL-SET : WELL(spring, as verb or noun) + SET(a collection of related items).

9, 21 Lovely mess with daughter after celebration (5,4)

JOLLY GOOD! : [ GOO(a messy substance) plus(with) D(abbrev. for “daughter”) ] placed after(after) JOLLY(a party or celebration, an occasion to be, well, jolly).

10 Green hugged by Russian leader once, bless my soul (9)

GORBLIMEY! : LIME(a shade of the colour, green) contained in(hugged by) GORBY(nickname for Mikhail Gorbachev, former Russian leader).

11 In fantasy, French film director makes appearance (10)

VISITATION : VISION(a fantasy;an imagined scenario) containing(In …, …) TATI(Jacques, late French film director).

12 Small fortune in hole (4)

SLOT : S(abbrev. for “small”) + LOT(a person’s fortune;fate).

14 Occasionally, no white noise around cooker (3,3,5)

NOW AND AGAIN : NO + WAN(white;without colour) + DIN(noise) containing(around) AGA(trademark name of a type of heavy heat-retaining stove;cooker).

18 Energy in X, devalued (11)

ADULTERATED : E(abbrev. for “energy” in physics) contained in(in) ADULT-RATED(descriptive of films given the X rating, intended for viewing by adults only).

Defn: Having rendered something poorer in quality (by adding another substance).

21 See 9

22 Attractive man, figure willing bachelor and bishop to roll over (4,6)

BABE MAGNET : Reversal of(… to roll over) [ TEN(a figure between 9 and 11) + GAME(willing to do or participate) + BA(post-nominal letters for a Bachelor of Arts graduate) plus(and) B(abbrev. for “bishop” in chess notation) ].

Defn: …, attracting babes;beautiful women.

25 “Minister backing mentor”: New Statesman (9)

VERMONTER : Reversal of(… backing) REV(abbrev. for “Reverend”, tile of a priest;a minister) + anagram of(… New) MENTOR.

Answer: A man from the US state of Vermont.

26 In effect, I’m only a Greek misanthrope (5)

TIMON : Hidden in(In) “effect, I’m only“.

Answer: … of Athens, a legendary misanthrope.

27 Vermin was in the van behind back of defendant, upset (7)

RATTLED : RAT(an example of vermin) + [ LED(was in the van;in the lead) placed after(behind) the last letter of(back of) “defendant” ].

28 Cloying novel certainly less popular (7)

TREACLY : Anagram of(novel) “certainly” minus(less) “in”(poular;in fashion).

Down

1 Familiar feeling due to doctor drinking endless coffee (4,2)

DEJA VU : Anagram of(… to doctor) DUE containing(drinking) “java”(coffee, originally refering to that from Java) minus its last letter(endless …).

2 Join up final parts of the television series (6)

ENLIST : The last letters, respectively, of(final parts of) “the television” + LIST(a written or printed number of connected items;a series).

Defn: To enrol in the armed services.

3 Fear of superhero being OK in pretty pants (10)

KRYPTONITE : Anagram of(… pants;rubbish) OK IN PRETTY.

Answer: An alien material capable of depriving superhero Superman of his powers. And he’s another superhero who wears his pretty pants on the outside.

4 Dream time approaching, close to sunset (5)

NIGHT : NIGH(approaching;imminent) + the last letter of(close to) “sunset“.

5 Ground water covering European city that would go over many a brave head (3,6)

WAR BONNET : Anagram of(Ground) WATER containing(covering) BONN(former capital city of West Germany).

Answer: …, a Red (or American) Indian brave, that is.

6 Ace opera singer (4)

LULU : Triple defn: 1st: An outstanding example of a particular type of person or thing; 2nd: … by Alban Berg; and 3: Scottish pop singer.

7 Nationality of the enigmatic Mona Lisa? (8)

SOMALIAN : Anagram of(enigmatic) MONA LISA.

8 Way to infiltrate difficult meeting in secret (8)

TRYSTING : ST(abbrev. for “street”;a way;a thoroughfare) contained in(to infiltrate) TRYING(difficult;requiring much effort).

13 Building ascends at last in Bristol, temporary construction (10)

SANDCASTLE : Anagram of(Building) [ASCENDS AT + the last letter of(last in) “Bristol” ].

15 Justified, as a fugitive may be, to pen article on rights (9)

WARRANTED : WANTED(as a fugitive may be, by the law) containing(to pen) [ A(an article in grammar) + RR(2 x abbrev. for “right”) ].

16 Housebound granny’s initial regret after a few sherries? (8)

HANGOVER : HANOVER(the House of, a German royal dynasty) containing(bound) the 1st letter of(…’s initial) “granny“.

17 Despot Hitler finally snatched by Jaguar, say? (8)

AUTOCRAT : The last letter of(… finally) “Hitler” contained in(snatched by) [ AUTO CAT ](what one might whimsically call;say, a Jaguar, an automobile named after a big cat).

19 First day smoke rings rising, mysterious and seemingly wise (6)

GNOMIC : Reversal of(… rising, in a down clue) [ MON(abbrev. for Monday, first day of the week) contained in(… rings) CIG(short for “cigarette”, also called a smoke) ].

Defn: Being difficult to understand because enigmatic or ambiguous, thus mysterious or seemingly wise.

20 Container in bird’s domain, humming (6)

STINKY : TIN(a container made from metal) contained in(in) SKY(a bird’s natural environment;domain).

Defn: With a hum;an unpleasant smell.

23 Bird, say, on top of tree (5)

EGRET : EG(abbrev. for “exempli gratia”;for example;say) + RE(on;refering to) + the 1st letter of(top of) “tree“.

24 Fellow member of parliament gets the bird (4)

FOWL : F(abbrev. for “Fellow”) + OWL(a member of a “parliament”, collective noun for a gathering of owls. Maybe wiser than the other Parliament?).

38 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27308 Paul”

  1. There are a couple of typos in there – nine instead of ten in 22, de javu instead of deja vu in 1.
    I also don’t see where the re in egret in 23 comes from.
    I needed the explanation for 24 – a tea tray for me, and two of the defs for lulu were unfamiliar.
    Thanks to both.

  2. I parse 22 as EG (“say”; abbr. for exempli gratia)+ RE (“on”)+ T (“top of tree.”)

    Good puzzle, Paul, and good blog, scchua.

  5. Lazily succumbed to the temptation of the “Reveal” button for LULU, after rejecting LALA, LILY, LOLA, etc.

    I should go back to printing out the grid to avoid that possibility. Hey ho.

    Thanks, Paul and scchua.

  6. Thanks Paul and scchua

    I’m often not a fan of Paul puzzles, but I thought that this was just about perfect – such delightful wit in so many clues. I could list just about all of them, but I’ll just highlight VISITATION, ADULTERATED, KRYPTONITE, GNOMIC and FOWL.

    Only quibble – I can’t find a reference to “vermin” being other than a plural noun, so “vermin was” should be “vermin were”, but that would give “rats” rather than “rat”.

  7. I found this quite tough but fair.

    Like muffin@6, I appreciated 18a ADULTERATED and 24d FOWL (the latter being my last one in: it took me ages to twig that other context for a “member of parliament”- nice misdirection from Paul). STINKY at 20d also raised a smile.

    Thanks to Paul for a fun yet precise puzzle and to scchua for the blog.

  9. Like Chris in France@5 I also succumbed and agree that printouts are preferable but I don’t have access to a printer on holiday!

    Many thanks to Paul and scchua.

  11. Thanks Paul; good, entertaining crossword.

    Good blog, scchua; my LOI was DOESKIN, had to look up the Yorkshire rivers!

    I liked the New Statesman and superhero in pretty pants.

  13. Muffin @6 Me too re the plural vermin. Well spotted, pretty sure you’re right.

    Great crossword, LOI DOESKIN…very tricky construction.

    Thanks Paul.

  14. A very enjoyable puzzle, with a lot of variety in the cluing (which seems the norm with Paul). I enjoyed the “AUTO-CAT”, TREACLY, BABE MAGNET, and many others. LOI for me was HANGOVER. I think this has been a great week of puzzles so far! Looking forward to seeing what Friday brings. Thanks to Paul and scchua.

  15. Oh, I forgot to mention in my prior post … I believe that vermin can be singular or plural. Several online dictionaries define it as a plural noun when referring literally to small pests such as insects or rodents, but as a singular noun when referring to a loathsome person. So if one were referring to an obnoxious person as a rat, one could also refer to him or her as vermin. Admittedly, “a vermin” sounds awkward.

  17. Foolishly put in OBSCURE for Hide at 1a straight away: OBS = abbrev for obsolete (vestigial), c for around and Ure for Yorkshire river. Fortunately 1d was fairly easy on def and enumeration alone, so I only had to punch myself in the face once before getting back on track.

  18. In retrospect this all seems quite straightforward, but I found it a bit of a struggle that got easier once a few key crossers were in place, which suggests it was a good puzzle. FOWL was last in.

    Thanks to Paul and scchua

  19. One of my two favourite setters and Paul certainly didn’t disappoint me today – some very enjoyable stuff! Like others here, my LOI was also FOWL. My favourite was probably ADULTERATED as it took me a while to get there; Paul usually manages to send me off at a tangent and I spent too long trying to get X as TEN into the answer, so it was a delightful PDM when it clicked. I could only parse two thirds of LULU as I’m no opera buff, but fair enough.

  21. Thanks both,

    Some excellent and witty clues. My cantankerous old SOED has at meaning 2b ‘a single animal or insect of this kind’ for ‘vermin’.

  22. Thanks to Paul and scchua. I did not know the AGA part of NOW AND AGAIN and needed help parsing HANGOVER (my LOI), but, thanks in part to Chaucer, I did spot the owl in FOWL. Very enjoyable.

  23. Thank you scchua and Paul. My favourite this week. Can always trust Paul to be fair in cluing.

    Was unaware of the “Ace” definition of “Lulu” which I found ironic as my friends and I have a thing called “who’s your Lulu?” where you list people who are pretty much universally liked but that you can’t abide for some reason. Created after one of my friends had a visceral reaction to the singer appearing on Strictly. (Apparently she is “only ever moments away from caterwauling the start to “Shout”)

    But this didn’t detract from an enjoyable solve!

  24. Great fun.

    I did the the punk in the independent first, and some people on this site were saying they preferred his guardian puzzle today, so I thought I’d better give it a go. Not at all disappointed, though I have to say his puzzle as Punk today is also a lot of fun.

    So many enjoyable clues in this, can’t begin to list favourites.

    Managed everything except the ace meaning of lulu.

    Many thanks Paul and thanks very much scchua for an excellent blog.

  25. 10 raised a laugh 🙂 . Couldn’t help breaking into the old song!

    Oh, my old man’s a dustman,
    He wears a dustman’s ‘at;
    He wears cor blimey trousers,
    And he lives in a council flat.

    Sometimes spelt with a ‘c’ as you can see.

    Rest of the puzzle all went in fine – in the end! Had to guess at 22 – not a familiar phrase but it works OK. And 5d was a wiki-lookup – a long time since I last played Cowboys’n’Injuns!

    I must remember that ‘other’ meaning of “Member of Parliament”! Now, what is ‘murder’ a collective for? Rooks, I think. And then there’s ‘murmuration’. All useful words for solvers – and setters….!

  26. A gem of a puzzle.

    The only thing I was puzzled by was the auto-cat in 17d. I thought the clue would work better with “jaguars” instead, so that we could have one AUTO and one CAT.

  27. Looking after an 18 month old grandson is not conducive to solving a Paul puzzle -but I’ve just got there. I know Paul has many fans and he does set a fine puzzle, but there are other setters I enjoy more. That said there were many clues I liked today with ADULTERATED and FOWL my favourites. Adulterated reminded me of INCANDESCENT from a few puzzles ago – I like that there is nothing (or just an E today) other than the word interpreted differently. The solution is there in plain sight – it’s just difficult to see! This type of clue seems the epitome of elegance and the zenith of the setter’s art to me.
    JinA – thank you for your appreciation yesterday of the way I contribute – you are one of people I have modelled my approach on.

  28. FirmlyDirac @25
    “A murder of crows”. Rooks are another “parliament”, strangely enough.

    btw it used to be the case that if you saw one or two rooks, they were crows; if you saw three or more crows, they were rooks. However the last couple of years they both seem to have lost the plot around here!

  30. Also, as DaveMc said @15, does “a vermin” really work? Possibly “vermin” is working as an adjective rather than a noun – “he’s vermin” is the same construction as “he’s pink”?

    What do others think? I’m not sure.

  31. Muffin @28. Ah well. I was just in the process of dreaming up a clue for CROOKS.
    “Many participants in murder are criminals (6)”
    But actually it works even better if the collective for rooks is ‘parliament’!
    “Many members of parliament are criminals (6)”
    which I’m sure a lot would agree with! 😀

  32. I’m getting later and later with these.I was coerced into gardening by Mrs PA which is my excuse for today. The puzzle seemed very difficult at first but, with a little thought,it unravelled in a satisfactory manner as is usual with Paul. Lots of goodies but FOWL was particularly good. It was also my LOI.
    Thanks Paul.

  33. I certainly wouldn’t describe this as an easy puzzle. Certainly enjoyable and 3d is pure genius. Paul very rarely lets us down.

    OED certainly has vermin as a singular noun in the figuraive use of the word. This use is documented as obsolete for the normal usage. (although of course RAT can be used in the figurative sense.)

    vermin

    …

    3. fig. Applied to persons of a noxious, vile, objectionable, or offensive character or type.

    …

    b. A single person or individual of this type.

    1581 J. Bell tr. W. Haddon & J. Foxe Against Jerome Osorius 76 b O monstruous vermine: did I ever speake or thinke any such matter?
    1627 J. Taylor Armado sig. C8 As a Horse being dead in the feilds and stripd, is a banquet for Dogs,..so is a Surety to those Vermins, who..prey vpon his estate.
    a1656 H. Rolle Abridgm., Action sur Case (1668) 57 He is a corrupt man, he is a Vermine in the Commonwealth.
    1682 Dryden Medall 3 A Vermin, wriggling in th’ Usurper’s Ear. Bart’ring his venal wit for sums of gold.
    1720 Humourist 192 Human Society is not infested with a more dangerous Vermin than a Flatterer.
    1797 R. Southey Lett. from Spain xxviii. 517 Here I was shown a den in which a Hermit lived twelve years; a small hole for so large a vermin.
    1842 J. Wilson Christopher North (1857) I. 137 The accursed vermin died somewhere in the Cottage.
    1881 Ld. Salisbury in Daily Tel. 14 Nov. 2/5 The landlord is an outcast, and a vermin so horrible [etc.].

  34. It’s back to a ‘normal’ unthemed crossword after yesterday’s themed puzzle, and it was a good one, with lots to enjoy in a great variety of clues with some amusing misdirections and clever touches.

    1a DOESKIN was my first in, but I didn’t actually understand why DO IN is ‘waste’ until I came here. Also, I knew only one meaning of LULU, not the other two, and I haven’t come across CIG for ‘cigarette’ before (in 19d GNOMIC), but it had to be that.

    In spite of or because of these little difficulties this puzzle was a good test of my solving skills, and I enjoyed the work-out very much. Among many favourites were 18a ADULTERATED, 24d FOWL and 20d STINKY.

    Many thanks to Paul and scchua.

  36. Another interesting and enjoyable puzzle. Thanks, Paul.

    I hadn’t come across WAR BONNET before (it sounds like something a Salvation Army woman would wear!), but got it reasonably quickly from the wordplay. On the other hand I’m familiar with all three meanings of LULU, but took an age to crack it.

  37. Could Whistler’s mother have been vermin, I wonder? No, that would be an unwarranted insult. But as we learned last week, she may have been a worthless hermit.

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