Guardian 27,359 / Rufus

50 comments on “Guardian 27,359 / Rufus”

1. A satisfying start to the week. Thanks Rufus and Eileen.

2. Thanks Rufus and Eileen

   Very easy but very enjoyable (I’m having more trouble with the Quiptic, which – heads up – is by the much-missed Orlando). Favourites were FORGE, DETACH and FORBID.

   A question (no more); FRACTIONAL is an adjective – can “not the whole” be used as an adjective too? It seems more like a nounal phrase to me.

3. One of Rufus’s better ones I thought.

   Particularly liked the clever anagram in 16a

4. Thank you, Eileen.

   Enjoyed the surprising anagram of Antonio’s Italian and ODDBALL has a smooth surface, but the rest was a bit too Rufusian for me.

   WCOD – STAMMERERS. Hmm?

   Nice week, all.

5. William@4: WCOD? What is that?

6. Had more trouble with the SW than I should have. I did not know about the blacksmith’s FORGE in Gretna Green (24a) even though I knew about the runaway marriages, so that was a guess from the “links” part. Thanks Eileen for the interesting link. Thought 22a might have been CLEANER but when it wouldn’t work I eventually saw 22d DEFY (Doh, now so obvious). DIVERT 20d was my LOI.

   I still don’t really get the “amusing” bit in 11a CAUTION, or the “parade” reference in 25a REALIGNED, but I think I am just being dense.

   Thanks to Rufus, and further appreciation to Eileen, for a fair, positive and courteous blog.

7. Muffin @2: Re FRACTIONAL, I thought the same. I suppose one could say, “Her contribution was only fractional, not the whole”. But I don’t think I would.

8. pex @5: Worst clue of the day.

9. Julie in Oz @6: CAUTION is a bit British, I think. People used to say of a wag, “That Billie’s a caution, isn’t he?” Meaning simply that he’s amusing, but I haven’t heard it for years.

10. Thanks William (twice). LSED. (Learn something everyday)

    Julie@6: I’m wholly British and I’ve never heard of CAUTION in that way.

11. Thanks Eileen and Rufus.

    I have never heard of CAUTION in that way either. For 24ac I initially put in ANVIL.

12. Hi Julie @6 – re REALIGNED: I thought of it as troops lined up in a parade.
    CAUTION – Collins: an amusing or surprising person or thing; Chambers: an alarming, amusing or astonishing person or thing – both say it’s informal. As William says, it seems very dated and I don’t think I’ve ever heard it in ordinary speech.

    Hi Bracoman @11 – so did I. 😉

13. I really enjoyed this, except the second definition of “realigned” which I thought very allusive/cryptic. I went down a cul-de-sac looking for some anagram of parade. On caution: this is very familiar to me: “Ooh, he’s a proper caution he is.” I wonder if it is a Midland/Northern usage? Fractional is a very precise mathematical definition: part of a whole.

14. If its in Chambers it its OK. Isnt Collins a drummer?

15. I’ve only heard ‘caution’ used sarcastically about someone who tells jokes but is not funny. I’ve not heard it for a long while but it’s not a word that was used in that sense very often.

16. I think “He’s a caution” is a northern expression; I’m familiar with it.

17. I enjoyed this. Nice start to the week (Thanksgiving week here in the US). I thought DIVERT was one of Rufus’ better cryptic clues/answers. I also enjoyed NATIONALISATION and ODDBALL. Many thanks to Rufus and Eileen and commenters.

18. A fun puzzle; but can someone please explain 24 across. I get it that FORGE = IT WAS USED TO MAKE LINKS (but why WAS?), and I understand that Gretna Green was a place where many people got married, or FORGEd, but how does it make sense to say that a FORGE was used TO MAKE LINKS AT GRETNA GREEN? Perhaps I’m just being dim…

19. Ah! I’ve just seen Eileen’s link: there was a FORGE or blacksmith’s shop at Gretna Green. Not dim, just ignorant.

20. Leo Pilkington @18

    The clue plays on the double meaning of FORGE: verb – to make links and noun – a blacksmith’s shop, where runaway marriages used to be conducted [hence ‘was’]. I think the link I gave in the blog helps to explain.

21. Sorry, Leo – we crossed. 😉

22. Thanks Rufus and Eileen; a relatively straightforward start to the week.

    I did not know the alternative meaning of CAUTION. According to my ODE, which gives current usage, that is informal and dated.

    I agree that the clues for STAMMERERS and DINNER LADY were rather weak.

    Nice anagram of Antonio’s Italian, and I quite liked the ADJUTANT.

23. “He’s a right caution, he is” is not restricted to the North. It’s just outdated. You’ll here it often enough in early British films, usually as a means of indicating the working class and what jokers they must be.

24. Thanks to Rufus and Eileen

    A gentle start to the week. I was held up a bit by putting in “referee” at 22ac and, like Bracoman @11, “anvil” at 24ac.

    23dn should really be “cook fish in a trendy way”.

25. I listen to lots of BBC radio comedy programmes (both current ones on R4 and older ones on R4 Extra) and am thoroughly familiar with the ‘informal’ use of the word caution. As a colloquialism it is rather dated, but the meaning has been kept alive through regular use within comedic wordplay. Masters of such wordplay include a northerner of a certain generation who is in a current programme on R4 at 6.30 this evening, followed immediately by a repeat of a 1973 programme on R4 Extra at 7.00 this evening.

26. Another “Anviller”; except when I used the reveal to fill it in for me, it wasn’t; I musn’t be lazy in future.

    Thanks, Eileen and Rufus (apart from the STAMMERERS one, though I see nothing else would fit S.A.M.R.R.)

27. Thanks both,
    Although this was quite quick there were several clues that raised a smile. 12, 13, 2 and 5 among others. As for 1d ‘He’s not the whole shilling’ seems adjectival, as does ‘Not the whole nine yards’.

28. I still don’t understand 24ac?

    I had a bit of trouble with it, thinking the definition was ‘make links’ and that ‘it was used’ alluded to the found word ‘agree’ in Gretn(a Gree)n. It didn’t help me that my ‘wrong’ answer fitted with 20dn and 17dn. Subsequently, I was stuck on 22dn and had to come here to get answer. Harrumph.

29. RSnajdr @28
    The FORGE in Gretna Green was the traditional site of the marriage ceremony, so “making links” in more than one sense. (I believe that you still can get married there). I remembered this, but tripped myself up a bit by trying to squeeze “smithy” in – fortunately too many letters!

30. RSnajdr @ 28 “It was used to make links at Gretna Green”

    “It was used to make links” – a forge is where a blacksmith might make the links for an iron chain.

    “at Gretna Green” – this is a village in Scotland where people can get married, using the anvil (forge?) in the ceremony. “make links” here means linked in marriage

31. Thanks to Rufus and Eileen. Enjoyable as always. Here in the US I knew CAUTION but can’t pin down the source – most likely TV shows or period fiction. I eventually got STAMMERERS from the crossers but only after trying out Stutterers and Sputterers – but no one else seems to have had that problem.

32. The long anagram was very fine, but I do wish ‘someone’ would save Rufus from his weakest clues. Stutterers would have been a slightly more cryptic solution to 14d. I also started with retrained at 25ac which is just as good as realigned, if not better. I must be getting old but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if I still use caution in the other sense.

33. I too enjoyed the ‘Italian’ anagram, and agree with xjp about the loss of consistency apparent (to me at least) across the piece.

34. I think Muffin is right about CAUTION in that it is Northern. It is working class usage but I haven’t heard it for ages.
    I thought this a little more difficult than usual for Rufus but I did have ANVIL for quite a time. FINN eluded me for ages but in retrospect was probably the best of the clues.
    Thanks Rufus.

35. I think this must have been easy, even for a Rufus, as I actually managed to complete it without any external help, almost unheard of for me. Thank you, Rufus, and Eileen for the blog -which cleared up one or two parsings. Favourites were NATIONALISATION and ADJUTANT.

36. Another ANVIL here.

37. I come from Brighton (and you can’t get much further south) and heard “caution” used to mean amusing when I was a boy in the 50s and 60s. It would be used of a person who said something considered comical which made you laugh out loud.

38. My (brief) Interweb research was inconclusive as to whether the use of CAUTION to mean a person who is amusing, surprising, charmingly roguish, etc., is of British or U.S. origin. The earliest references appeared to be of U.S. origin (throughout the 1800s), but typically included ” … to _______” as part of the phrase (e.g., “you’re a caution to snakes”). I have encountered the term many times in books, plays, movies, TV shows, songs, etc., originating from both places, I believe. (But maybe it is less well known in Australia and some other English speaking parts of the world?)
    I remember the term from a song lyric in the first musical play I was in, in high school — Little Mary Sunshine, a send-up of the Rudolf Friml “Mountie” operettas (Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald and all that), set in turn-of-the-(20th) century Colorado: “Naughty, naughty Nancy, you’re a caution, yes you are, you’re a caution, but we love the things you do!”

39. Thanks Eileen and Rufus (as always). A STAMMERER in remission, I didn’t much like 14d. My speech is always straightforward.

40. Thanks to Rufus and Eileen.
    25 A. I don’t think that REALIGNED works. Soldiers may be aligned on the parade ground following the order “Right Dress” but “aligned” doesn’t itself mean “on parade”.

41. A bit of a mixed bag as others have said – thanks Eileen for the elucidation of ‘well advised’ in 22ac – I thought Rufus was giving credence to diviners. Actually my first thought was DERMATOLOGIST but a bit long that.

42. Agree with Forbes @37, I was at Brighton Tech in the late 50s.

    Thank you Rufus and Eileen.

43. I ‘finnished’ this but still don’t understand 4d.

44. Had a go at this after doing the Indie.

    Gerry C@43: Not sure what there is left to explain in 4dn – IF reversed (coming up) plus N for north twice, and a FINN lives in the north. However, as I spent a summer holiday in Finland this year, and just this afternoon I had finished (no pun intended) reading a biography of G.C Mannerheim, voted the greatest Finn of all time, I found that clue rather easy.

45. Duh! I was thinking of North as more Manchester way (in the way that the BBC and most British media do). Even though I’m in Orkney. Thanks.

46. Indeed. I grew up in County Durham and always thought of Manchester as down south.

47. I agree, 14d was my least favourite clue. Unfair and inaccurate.

48. I enjoyed this puzzle, although I failed to solve CHAR.

    Thanks Eileen and Rufus

49. My only problem was with 14d, and that was shortsighted.
    Interested to read about caution and comedy. It featured in many early English comedies which were popular here in oz. I did not get the connecions, but the early blogs triggered the memory.

50. Rufus has his admirers I know, but for those of us who don’t care for his “style” Mondays can be a bit grim as he seems to be everywhere.

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