Guardian Prize 27,405 by Paul

43 comments on “Guardian Prize 27,405 by Paul”

1. Thanks bridgesong.  The usual mix of easy and fiendish clues, making for a good solve.  HAPPENING was only gettable via the crossers.  I failed to explain to myself the ‘speaking clock’ bit of SEAHORSE.  Last in was 22A: for many minutes I couldn’t think of a 3-letter PM!

2. Thanks to Paul and bridgesong. I struggled but did eventually get through. It took me some time to spot the “notre” for CHESTERTON (my LOI) and I came up with “(p)uff” not “(d)uff” for SOUFFLE. RA-RA SKIRT was new to me (though gettable from the clues), but SHTICK was familiar. Lots of fun.

3. If only 23 were true.

4. Once again, great puzzle from Paul! Oddly enough, CHESTERTON was also my LOI, and I have to admit using “clock” as a synonym for “see” was also a new one for me. Between that and RA RA SKIRT, the latter made much more sense(especially after looking it up). Don’t remember looking up “clock” synonyms though. Come to think of it, “watch” works as a synonym for both, doesn’t it? A watch is a much smaller clock, and when you watch a TV show, you see it! Wonder if that’s what Paul meant, in a roundabout way? Sometimes you never know what the setter was really thinking when he/she constructed the puzzle. Wish I could imagine what it’s like inside Paul’s brain——or any of the other setter’s brains, for that matter!

5. I typed Shtick into google, and it immediately came up with ‘talent’. I guess Paul uses that too. 🙂
   Also https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/shtick
   So I’ll let him off on that one.
   3 left to go in todays offering. Will have to mull them over for a bit.

6. Thanks to Paul and Bridgesong. As usual with Paul, I started slowly and finished with a flourish. Not sure how he does it but I prefer that to racing through 90% only to be left with 2 or 3 that refuse to reveal themselves. I gather that some solvers prefer it that way.

   I was a little surprised at some of Bridgeson’s quibbles today. I think HAPPENING is a neat, clever double definition and something of a chestnut. The first meaning doesn’t require the noun form, e.g. “It’s happening now.” Shtick and talent are close for me, although I have argued the element of innate ability in talent at times. Chesterton has appeared often enough and “Guardian’s translated” screamed NOTRE to me. I even vaguely recall a Chesterton-themed puzzle a while ago.

   Paul sometimes is knocked for his clunky surfaces. I saw the “Five” in 4dn as a clever way to improve the surface and contribute to the wordplay.

   My last to parse was SEAHORSE where “speaking clock” required Google to check whether C or “see” was somehow a synonym.

   On a personal note, my Name has changed again because I have relocated again, this time to Kuala Lumpur. When I first joined Fifteensquared I signed in as just Colin but was politely told that there was another poster of that name, so I added Tokyo as a prefix which then became HK. In 10+ years I don’t think the other Colin has ever posted, but I will continue with my geographic qualifier.

7. Thanks Bridgesong, I also enjoyed RAMPARTS.  Liked PECKER, and the extra dimension if you’re a Brit, which I’m not, for  the name for a pub. (Thought it must have been, and sure enough there were quite a few.)

   As with Kuala Lumpur Colin, I too saw HAPPENING as double definition, both adjectival. NICTATING was familiar and an easy anagram with the abbreviation.  ( I don’t know why setters do that No Good thing. They may as well just write NG in the clue.)

   PARR was a challenge, knowing neither the fish, nor Henry’s wives and the mnemonic Bridgesong mentioned. But it was  gettable from a  couple of crossers, and rewarded with a chuckle.

8. Thanks to Paul & Bridgesong. I thought this was terrific, favourites being BLACK SABBATH and RAMPARTS, which, when the penny dropped, elicited a groan.

9. Thanks Paul and bridgesong

   I though the clue for BLACK SABBATH was great fun. I had to check NICTATING as I the word is nictITating as far as I knew.

10. Like muffin I always thought it was nictITating. Thanks for revealing the full glory of BLACK SABBATH, which I’d got but not fully parsed. Favourites HAPPENING (no quibbles here, it’s a neat DD), PARR and RAMPARTS.

11. Liked this one.  Pecker is perhaps not as funny as the setter thinks, but Black Sabbath and ramparts were lovely.  Also high risk: such a nice surface.

    Always interesting what people find obvious and not.  For us happening was a simple write in on a first trawl through the clues.

    Carelessly we wrote in elasticated for elasticised, which held us up for a bit.

    Wasn’t a great fan of the Chesterton clue.  Why not just “author” as the definition”?

12. Thank you Bridgesong. I enjoyed the puzzle but needed your help for parsing CHESTERTON. Just didn’t see the reverse NOTRE at all. I also, somewhat carelessly put in ELASTICATED instead of ELASTICISED, at first, which created a problem with SOPHOCLES.

    Is a SEAHORSE particularly delicate?

    Coincidentally, I was reading Philippa Gregory’s “The Taming of the Queen” about Katherine PARR when doing the crossword. A book club choice, not my own, and a somewhat depressing read. It highlights the dangers of absolute power.

    Thanks to Paul & Bridgesong.

13. I’ve had a look at SHTICK in the Oxford Dictionary of English and it’s true that the definition there does use the word “talent” so I withdraw my quibble.  The same dictionary also defines EASTING as “distance travelled” so I must also acknowledge that Paul was right there as well.

14. I found this a very appealing puzzle, and enjoyed 2d UNDIES, 5d SOPHOCLES, 7d AGITATES, and 13d PARDONABLE, as well as the afore-mentioned 17d RAMPARTS and 20d PECKER, the latter two being a lot of fun.
    No “quibbles” from me, but I did let myself down a bit, googling to check 19d, the capital TIRANA, and my LOI, 12a PARR, for the fish reference. I am with muffin and Gladys re knowing that word (15d) as “nictitating”.
    Many thanks to Paul and bridgesong for keeping this Prize puzzler happy!

15. Crossbar@12. I think the survival rate of the little seahorses (the small fry!) is quite low and they are vulnerable to predators once the male expels them from the pouch – so I reckon “delicate” is a reasonable adjective in the clue.

16. nictating or nictitating

    Frrom Meriam Webster:

    Nictitate didn’t just happen in the blink of an eye; it developed over time as an alteration of the older verb nictate, which also means “to wink.” Both verbs trace to the Latin word for winking, nictare. The addition of the extra syllable was apparently influenced by Latin verbs ending in -itare, such as palpitare and agitare (which gave us palpitate and agitate, respectively). Today, nictitate has a special use in the animal world. Since the early 18th century, scientists have used nictitating membrane to describe the so-called “third eyelid”: the thin, usually transparent membrane in the eyes of birds, fishes, and other vertebrates that helps keep the eyeball moist and clean.

17. I didn’t parse ASTI – I was looking for the more obvious wordplay as “A TI[n]” but couldn’t figure out how the S gets into it.  Methinks I haven’t been in “stir” long enough … 😮 ? (I visited jail just once in my life – and that was just one day).

    Otherwise fine. Just for once BLACK SABBATH slipped in easily – as a rule I’m not over-fond of ‘stammering’ clues to invoke a doubled letter, but it works fine here, excellent clue I think (perhaps others don’t agree?).  I say “just for once” because music other than classical is not my forte, I’m afraid.

    EASTING is indeed not a perfect definition (this happens often enough in the Graun!), but I think it works – just!  I recall the old adage, from school geography lessons when we were learning about Grid references:  “First you East, then you North”.  The distance travelled East, from Ordnance Datum, to get to a grid point was referred to as the “Easting” – then you had to imagine turning a right-angle and travelling a distance North – the “Northing”.  Forgive me if my memory of O-level Geog. is a bit shaky – it was a long time ago!

    For PECKER, I’m wondering if Paul was thinking also of HENPECKER as a vague third def. – hence the question mark?

    Thanks to Paul and Bridgesong.

18. [Laccaria @17

    We were taught “along the corridor, then up the stairs”!]

19. Thanks Julie in Oz @15. I didn’t know much about seahorses.

20. Paddymelon @16 – this NICITATING eyelid is a familiar feature in some cats and dogs – the so-called ‘haw’ which is often visible for a while when the animal wakes from sleep.  In the movie Men In Black, I (wrongly) thought at first that the odd blink action of one of the ETs is also a kind of nicitating membrane (something which humans don’t possess).

21. The note I made at the time was “steadily progressed through this, plenty to enjoy with typical Paul wit at 21d.” I also had ticks by PARR, MAYONNAISE and SEAHORSE (thanks for the extra info JinA), and I was another lazy ELASTICATED who was consequently held up with 5d. I didn’t have any queries over the definitions, but then I don’t usually delve that deeply into them, although SHTICK was the loi and a bit of a stretch from how I’ve heard it used.
    Based on the comments above and how I found this I’m going to move myself up a notch on the solving expertise ladder – no doubt to find myself landing on the head of a snake!

22. Thanks to Paul and Bridgesong for clarifying some parsing. Liked this a lot with lots of “lightbulb moments” and chuckles along the way. Another who carelessly put in elasticated and got held up, but good old Sophocles soughted me out. Thanks again to setter and blogger.

23. I’m sorry for forgetting to thank Paul and Bridgesong.

24. I thought this Paul on form. HAPPENING was rather like Rufus on drugs. And I didnt mind the reverse of NOTRE.

    Thanks bridgesong and Paul.

25. Nice puzzle. As someone said earlier better to start slow and finish strong than otherwise.
    Got all this done pretty promptly by my standards. But struggled on definition for TIRANA CHESTERTON ASTI. really liked PARR TIDAL SOUFFLÉ inter Ali’s. (wondering… had anyone ever set a x-word where accented English words are required. Eg off the end of SOUFFLÉ a starting down clue might be ÉPÉE etc. Might be an interesting novelty!)

26. I was ELASTICATED, if you see what I mean and,while I realised SOPHOCLES was probably right but I delayed altering the former for ages. I didn’t like the clue for CHESTERTON but I couldn’t think of anything else. LOI was PARR despite the excellent clue.
    Thanks Paul

27. The “delicate” link to SEAHORSE is firmly fixed in my mind by the closing lines of Browning’s “My Last Duchess”: “Notice Neptune, though, / Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity, / Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me.” In this dramatic monologue the narrator had revealed how he “tamed” and destroyed his late (delicate) wife, so that the coda is particularly evocative if a reader mentally links the god Neptune with a small fragile creature.

     

28. I solved at a fairly steady pace but then got stuck on the 1’s. Although I parsed 1a correctly, I couldn’t bring SOUFFLE to mind (fixated on truffle) till I did a word search. That gave me SHTICK, which had to be right even though I didn’t recognise the definition and Chambers failed to enlighten.

    I also noticed on reading the blog that I’d only faintly pencilled in ASTI, wondering, like Laccaria, where the S came from in A TI(n) — even though I’d seen STIR for prison in another clue recently.

    I’m surprised at the number of commenters not familiar with “clock” as slang for “see” (“Did you clock the expression on his face when …”). Maybe they’re all foreigners?

    Enjoyed 26a, BLACK SABBATH, a welcome relief for this Philistine from Paul’s more usual classical music refs. Loved 17d, RAMPARTS and 20d, PECKER, although some will object to crude references to “bits”.

    @Andrew B,
    Adding “English” to “author” is an act of grace, which narrows the field — especially helpful with this fairly tricky clue. Personally I hate it when a definition is just something like “poet”, with no qualifier (or worse still, “composer” — ahem! See Wed).

    @Julie in A,

    Had to laugh when I realised that the words “I am with muffin” were actually not, as I took them on first encounter, an announcement of pregnancy — in some Aussie twist on our pom slang “bun in the oven”.

    @Laccaria, muffin
    It was “first the plane accelerates along the runway, then goes up” or similar for us (order of map references).

29. Tony @28

    🙂

30. Muffin @29

    Happily, perhaps(?), that’s been rendered as a black square on my phone.

31. It was a smiley, Tony!

32. Thanks all. Easting comes before northing in grid references, but confusingly it’s always “latitude and longitude” you hear rather than “longitude and latitude”.

33. [ACD@27 – I really like that Browning poem. I have some good memories of sharing it with young people. It’s like a murder mystery in verse form!]

    [Tony@28 – lol. We are more inclined to say “up the duff” here in Australia, though it’s a much less genteel phrase. Fortunately those days are long past – not going to happen “when I’m 64”. BTW, as a fellow Philistine regarding the classical composers, I’m “with you” re the BLACK SABBATH clue.]

34. [@Julie in A,

    Haha! We say that too! I’ve also just turned 64 — but I’m not losing my hair! Or my marbles. Yet. Remember seeing Black Sabbath, aged about 17, when they came to town.]

35. I have never been a BLACK SABBATH fan myself. My tastes run more toward Steely Dan or Electric Light Orchestra. As for the PECKER clue, it did seem more like something you’d find in Cyclops’ Private Eye Crossword. Terrible how “cock” has come to mean such a thing over the years! Guess there’s no law against the least little bit of adult humor finding its way into a British crossword puzzle, is there? You almost never see anything so risque in American crosswords, though. I certainly can’t imagine Will Shortz allowing PECKER in the New York Times Crossword, that’s for sure.

36. Patrick @35 – Paul is well known for his slightly risqué “schoolboy” humour. Nearly all his crosswords contain something of that kind.

    Always makes me think of the Flanders and Swan song, “Ma’s out, Pa’s out, let’s talk rude. Pee, po, belly, bum, drawers!”

37. While we’re on this rather risqué them … Tony@28, Julie@33, et al … I think I’d better refrain from quoting the hoary old joke about the little girl in the barber shop (google it if you really must)!

    Back to reality.  I know better, of course, than to post spoilers to this weekend’s prize, but I feel I must urge people who haven’t already done so, to have a go at yesterday’s offering from Picaroon.  One of the best puzzles I’ve seen for quite a while, in my view (though others may disagree).  More next Saturday!

38. It was refreshing to read all the comments more than a week after just about managing to complete this entertaining Paul puzzle. I even sent it in by free online fax so there is a very small chance of winning something/being mentioned on Monday. I’m in Germany – got stuck here after a career in EFL. After living away from the UK for so long I sometimes feel my English has become a little fossilized(?) and I’m sure doing these crosswords helps to slow down this process, also watching quite a lot of British TV.

    Julie in A and Tony: It’s good to have some reassurance that the marbles are still jangling as age increases, isn’t it. You are both striplings, I consider, as I recently turned 78. The online version of the Guardian cryptic has been a real eye-opener for me, helping me to improve my solving skills but letting me use reveal when I get stuck or am feeling a little lazy. The explanations here are excellent and add to the never ending learning process.

    Many thanks to Paul, bridgesong and all other contributors.

     

39. [Laccaria @37,

    Couldn’t resist. With that (US? muff here, maybe) interpretation of muffin, I suppose I should really have misread Julie’s words as the declaration “I AM WOMAN!”]

    [Patrick J. Berry @35
    That’s a usage of cock that’s had currency here in England my whole life, and longer. Maybe it’s made its way across the water in recent years?]

40. Just to clarify the point: the English muffin looks like this.  Completely different from the American variety.  Enough said – how did we get this far off-topic? 🙂

41. “how did we get this far off-topic?”

    I blame muffin *winky face with a wry smile* …

42. [Martin @38,

    Cheers. Keep it up and you’ll probably be really good at cryptics by the time you get old.]

43. While I am a huge fan of Paul’s work, whenever I do one of his puzzles I don’t necessarily go looking for any “naughty”-sounding clues. If there have been any truly dirty ones lately I’ve probably glossed right over them. The only thing that comes to mind at this moment would be a clue for MASTITIS that made it suggest MA’S TITTIES. Or for that matter, the word MANBOOBS, a word I know all too well. As for “cock” meaning what it does, I do remember once hearing Benny Hill use it in that context, and at the time I may or may not have gotten the reference, as I was much younger then. But usually when I think of risque cryptic clues, my mind goes right to Cyclops at Private Eye.

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