Guardian 27,444 – Paul

by

It’s hard to find anything new to say about Paul: I can only express my admiration for his ability to come up with high-quaity puzzles with such regularity. This was a typical example, with ingenuity and wit throughout. Thanks to Paul on this chilly morning.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
9. INDOCHINA Slowly movin’ to conceal swindle, a part of Asia (9)
DO (to swindle) in INCHIN’ + A
10. OP ART Old quarter, newer design (2,3)
O[ld] PART (quarter). The term op art dates from 1964, so I suppose it’s newer than some; otherwise “newer” seems to be there just as a contrast to “old” in the surface reading
11. GIMMICK A Rolling Stone introduces himself after good trick (7)
G + I’M MICK [Jagger]
12. KINETIC Parasite not quite attaching to cows, due to motion (7)
KINE (cows) + TIC[K] (parasite)
13. NEAT Straight part of routine a triumph (4)
Hidden in routiNE A Triumph. As in taking your whisky straight/neat
14. DAWN CHORUS In brief half-light, stop to catch first bit of warbling — like this? (4,6)
W[arbling] in ANCHOR (stop), in DUS[K]
17. HANGMAN With both flanks cleared, swap piece, drawing game (7)
[C]HANG[E] (swap) + MAN (piece in chess etc). Hangman is a game that involves drawing a gallows
19. LIGHT OPERA Patience perhaps a virtue, having invested time in a girl, foolishly (5,5)
T in HOPE (a virtue) in (A GIRL)*. Patience is one of the light operas of Gilbert and Sullivan
22. XMAS Regularly appearing, exam days when school’s out (4)
Alternate letters of eXaM dAyS
24. GUM TREE Bloke cut metre off plant from Australia (3,4)
GU[Y] + METRE*
25. ORLANDO US city airport not closing with start of operations (7)
ORL[Y] (Paris airport) AND (with) O[perations]
26. ALOHA Hello — a greeting interpreted the wrong way (5)
Reverse of A HOLA (Spanish greeting)
27. TURPITUDE Pharaoh getting back scrubbed, hell amid gross depravity (9)
TUT (abbreviated version of Tutankhamun) less its last letter + PIT (hell) in RUDE (gross)
Down
1. SINGING TELEGRAM Tinge out, 0.001kg boxes? Message noted (7,8)
TINGE* in (boxed by) SINGLE GRAM (0.001 kg). “Noted” as in “with [musical] notes”
2. ADAM’S ALE Where, perhaps, to buy a barrier for water (5,3)
You might buy it at A DAM SALE
3. ACRID Bitter cold in desert (5)
C in ARID
4. KICKBACK Punt with second payoff (8)
KICK (a punt is a type of kick in Rugby etc) + BACK (to second, support)
5,16. WALK IN THE PARK Picnic, outdoor exercise (4,2,3,4)
Double definition, with picnic meaning something very easy (perhaps more often seen in the negative: “it’s no picnic”)
6. MOONSHINE Nonsense, such extremes entertained by low figure (9)
S[uc]H in MOO (low) NINE
7. CANTER Quickish pace from China, knees gone might you say? (6)
Homophonically, “Cantonese” less “knees”
8. STICKS AND STONES Criticism wears down characters — but these really hurt? (6,3,6)
STICK (criticism) SANDS TONES
15. BACTERIAL Calibrate in a different way regarding micro-organisms (9)
CALIBRATE*
17. HARLOTRY Unprincipled behaviour of women, prince snaffling them all (8)
LOT (all, as in “the lot”) in HARRY
18. MOMENTUM Force doctor and staff to join corporation (8)
MO (doctor) + MEN (staff) + TUM (fat stomach, corporation). In physics, force and momentum are not the same thing, but words have common, non-technical, meanings too, and in that way it’s a reasonable definition
20. GAMBOL Caper has doctor incarcerated? (6)
MB in GAOL
21. PRETTY Quite lovely (6)
Double definition
23. PLAIN Quite ugly (5)
Double definition – a nice pair of double defs to end the puzzle

70 comments on “Guardian 27,444 – Paul”

  1. Missed the CANTERKNEES on 7d, but it was a good puzzle that went in rather quickly. Favourites were DAWN CHORUS, MOONSHINE and TURPITUDE. Many thanks to Paul and Andrew.

  2. Good to see my local language get a run out, especially with the threat it faces from Beijing. That was a nice clue but DAWN CHORUS is something of a thing of beauty. I did wonder, though, if the ‘like this’ were really necessary.

  3. Thanks Paul and Andrew

    Off the a flying start with 1d a write-in. Most went easily, but the SE took some time to complete.

    On the whole I enjoyed it more than I often do with Paul. Particular favourites were DAWN CHORUS and GUM TREE.

    I finished with a series of examples of clues I don’t like; LIGHT OPERA, ORLANDO and TURPITUDE – all examples of “guess the answer, then try to parse”. Yes, I know they all work, but take ORLANDO for instance. Even if you spot how it is going to work (which I did, in fact), ORLY would be a long way down a list of airports.

    I won’t bother to comment on the “homophone”!

    Could someone explain in what context PLAIN = “quite” please?

  4. Loved it all.
    Favourite was 1d SINGING TELEGRAM. Seems an archaic sort of concept nowadays. I have a photo of receiving one in my school classroom (sent by my students) from 1985. I recall that the doggerel was dreadful and I look so embarrassed!
    Thanks to Paul for sparking that memory, and to Andrew for explaining a couple of solutions that I had ??? against.

  5. muffin@3 I think that one could say, for instance, ‘That is plain stupid’. Not exact, perhaps, but close enough I think.
    Andrew, at 8d there is a small glitch in the blog: it should read ‘sands tones’.
    Thanks to Paul and Andrew.

  6. Thanks, Andrew and Paul, for an enjoyable blog and puzzle.

    Lots to smile at – I particularly liked DAWN CHORUS, LIGHT OPERA [with the allusion to Bunthorne 😉 ] TURPITUDE and HARLOTRY.

    8dn also deserves a mention, for the clever allusion to this saying, which some may not have heard of.

     

  8. muffin@3 ORLANDO was one of my favourites. Wasnt Orly the main airport before CDG(70s)?Pretty near too. Took a while to click as Buffalo and Chicago also fit-but didnt parse.

    But HARLOTRY was a beauty (I thought so at any rate)

    A good midweeker from Paul.Welcome after the last two days.

    Thanks all.

  9. A bit tough for me this morning, with about half a dozen unparsed… New words/phrases for me were ADAM’S ALE and OP ART, plus “kine” and “Orly”. SINGING TELEGRAM was a satisfying one to parse after guessing it from crossers, and I also enjoyed GIMMICK and loved CANTER. Took me far too long to get to XMAS – am I right in thinking tHoSe SoRtS of clues are a bit of an Arachne hallmark or is that just my impression from the last couple of weeks of puzzles? (Still getting to grips with different setters’ tastes)

    Nice to see a virtue cropping up again in the LIGHT OPERA clue. Having expressed reservations about a couple of Boatman’s clues yesterday despite really enjoying the vast majority of that puzzle, I’ve resolved to highlight the positive this week.

    Many thanks to Paul and Andrew

  10. Just my cup of tea! Thank you Paul. Particularly liked 2d and 7d.

    Agree with muffin (@3) regarding LIGHT OPERA and ORLANDO (even though ORLY is the only non-UK or US airport I know apart from the Dutch one).

     

  11. Such an enjoyable puzzle! My favourites were ADAMS ALE, DAWN CHORUS, MOMENTUM, LIGHT OPERA, MOONSHINE.
    I needed some help to fully parse 27a (suspected it was TUT but could not work it out), 7d – oh, very clever!
    Thanks Paul and blogger.

  12. muffin @3: I have more difficulty equating plain to ‘ugly’ than to ‘quite’. I cant better George C’s offering though.

    BTW, I started with FAIRLY for ‘quite lovely’

  13. I’m with Eileen (again – now there’s a surprise)

    Thanks to Paul for the fun and Andrew for the explanations

  14. As someone who was critical of yesterday’s fare (albeit in a measured, justified manner I hope), let me give credit when it is due. This was a delight to solve. Over very quickly but with many smiles, chuckles and moments of satisfaction along the way. CANTER was a gimme for me since I hear the language every day. And I recently returned from Hanoi so INDOCHINA was also front of mind. I was initially stymied by 25ac because I could see that the likely answer was ORLANDO but the Stockholm airport I know well is Arlanda and I sniffed a Grauniadism but it was not to be. A very effective diversion for anyone with Scandinavian connections.
    Many others also showed Paul’s inventive mind and insights into nuances of meaning. This is why I keep coming back for more.
    Many thanks to Paul and to Andrew for the fine blog.
    [Ulaca – if Cantonese is your local language, are you in Hong Kong or nearby?]

  15. pex@12
    Rather unkindly, when describing women, the term ‘plain’ is often used as a euphemism for ‘plug ugly’.

  16. Only ever lurked before, so hello all. I love Paul’s puzzles. The reference at 8d is to “sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me”.

  17. George Clements@15:

    Lady Gwendolen Cecil, daughter of the Victorian prime minister Lord Salisbury, who wrote a 4-volume biography, was known as one of the Salisbury plains, along with her sister. there’s Victorian charm for you.

  18. Super crossword, thanks Paul.

    Thanks Andrew; I did not see the Cantoknees.

    I started rather slowly as usual but it all came together in the end.

    Some nice surfaces – I liked HANGMAN and GIMMICK among others.

  19. Unusual smut-free Paul: no references to lavatories or body parts.

    But 7d won’t do. Canton (the old English name for Guangzhou) and canter are not homophones. One is an iamb the other a  trochee apart from anything else.

  20. I yield to no-one in my admiration for Paul, easily my favourite setter, but I’m afraid 7d just doesn’t work for me. “From China” leads to CANTONESE, and removing the “knees” gives CANTON, not CANTER, a perfectly valid word (although obviously not correct as an answer). I did fill in CANTER from the definition, but was unable to parse it.

  21. Like pex@12 I briefly had FAIRLY for 21dn.  I also pored over HARLOTRY for too long being fixated HER=”of women” which of course was wrong as it would be “their”, women being plural.  Always a good workout when Paul is setting – missing the usual risque reference though – unless HARLOTRY counts.

  25. Lovely puzzle. Seeing the reference to G and S reminds me of the late great Bob Smithies (Bunthorne) who regularly had clues surrounding those light operas.

  26. Thanks Paul and Andrew
    ‘Quite’ can mean both ‘completely’ and ‘fairly’ or ‘somewhat’ (cf Chambers). Paul uses it here in these two different senses. Usually the intended meaning is clear from the context.

  29. I know this is far from clearing things up, but dictionaries seem to have kant??ni?z and kant? which would suggest the standard pronounciation of Cantonese *is* canterknees. It’s probably a rhotic/non-rhotic issue? But if Paul’s gone with RP then I think it’s unfair to say the clue doesn’t work – just that it relies on a pronunciation which isn’t universal.

  31. cedric @25 – my comment @6 referred to the fact that ‘Patience’ is also known as ‘Bunthorne’s bride’, hence Bob Smithies’ pseudonym.

  32. Meph@29: I didn’t want to bring up rhoticism as I don’t think it obtains here, but since you mention it, the problem with these variants is that a substantial portion of the audience simply doesn’t <i>notice</i> the putative equivalence until it’s pointed out and explained, which in turn leads to considerable irritation. For that reason I think setters need to take particular care with homophonic answers.

  33. While I enjoy Paul’s puzzles I usually struggle and complete them only with persistence. This one, on the other hand, yielded more on the first pass than is usual and the rest went in steadily. I now have some spare time I didn’t expect when Mrs PB told me who the setter was this morning.

    Thanks to Paul and to Andrew.

  34. This is more the sort of thing after yesterday’s unsatisfactory puzzle. Everything went in fairly briskly and with some enjoyment.
    I liked SINGING TELEGRAM and MOMENTUM. XMAS was LOI for no particular reason.
    Good fun.
    Thanks Paul.

  35. Thanks to Paul for a super Puzzle and Andrew for clarifying some bits of parsing. I was not sure about canter, dawn chorus and Orlando. I also had to check on kine. A steady enough solve for me, though the west side went in more quickly than the east. Got held up at harlotry by trying to fit Hal in somewhere and last one in moonshine? Lots of wit and too many good clues to mention. Thanks again to Paul and Andrew.

  36. The carping about the validity of the homophone element of the clue for CANTER is tiresome and detracts from a clever, amusing clue which was a pleasure to solve. There are no local pronunciation aspects – the Cantonese word for the language of the province of Guangdong and most chinatowns (not just the city of Guangzhou) is pronounced something like ‘guangdongwah’ but with tones which are essential to comprehension. Cantonese is an English word spoken in a variety of ways depending on the accent of the speaker. Some (like me) pronounce the ‘o’ as in Indonesia, others use a softer ‘a’ as in a NSW “castle” (JinA will understand) but very few would not acknowledge that Cantonese and canter knees are close enough for crosswordland.

  39. KLC @36: Thank you for putting the right words to what I wanted to say. I’ll just add that as Rob (36) says, even if it wasn’t quite right, Paul covers it in the clue.

    George C: thanks for the enlightenment. I shall have to be more careful how I use the word in future.

  40. All fairly straightforward by Paul’s recent standards, and none the worse for that. Had to check the Patience reference in LIGHT OPERA but G&S will never be my specialist subject.

    Thanks to Paul and Andrew

  41. Since the days of Araucaria, Paul has always remained my favourite setter. He regularly brings a smile to my face with the revelation of a solved clue, and always seems to give one a chance, as though he really wants the would be solver to complete his every puzzle.

  43. Count me as one for whom “canter” and the “canto” in “Cantonese” aren’t even remotely close in pronunciation, and yes, it’s a rhoticity issue, and yes, we’ve flogged that horse to death.  I have simply gotten used to Paul murdering the bejesus out of every final R and then writing a homophone clue around it.  I’ve moved on to more important issues in my life.

  44. Thanks to Paul and Andrew. Very enjoyable. I had trouble seeing the Orly for ORLANDO but otherwise proceeded fairly steadily – and like mrpenney I steer clear of pronunciation debates.

  45. Re 18D we had TUM as ‘trade union move me not which, although not quite a corporation, was something we had learned from other crosswords…we don’t see how TUM is ‘corporation’ any other way – can anyone help?!?

  47. A bit late finishing today despite spending more time than I wanted on delayed public transport. But I just wanted to say that I always wanted to keep going, unlike yesterday.

  49. I had to cry “foul!” when CANTER (my LOI) finally clicked.  Is this ‘Estuary English’, whatever that may be, rearing its ugly head?  Whichever dialect “Canternese” may originate from, it ain’t my dialect, sorry!

    Rest of today’s Paul was fine and great fun.  I did query, for a while, the MOMENTUM = FORCE? bit, but then I reckon he had in mind the political movement within the Labour Party.  Which I suppose is a sort of ‘force’.  Whether for good or bad depends, I suppose, upon whose side you’re on! 🙂

    Oh and, being a confirmed hater of that silly season, I was delighted to see XMAS written thus, not as the C-word!  Others will no doubt take a different view.  For the record, I always pronounce it “X-mas” just as written.  Tell me all about the ‘X’ standing for the Greek ‘chi’ until you’re blue in the face!  I shan’t change my habits!

    I didn’t parse DAWN CHORUS.  Wrote it in, decided I’d come back to it, then forgot.  Nor did I parse ORLANDO.  Which is stupid of me, because I had ORLY in one of my puzzles (on Alberich’s site) only a few months ago.  No matter.

    Thanks as always, Paul and Andrew.

  50. LilSho please don’t withdraw that magnificent accident, which brought back the feel of the 1970s, picket line by picket line!

  51. Puff, puff thanks to Paul and Andrew, puff, puff, wheeeeze…

    Catching up like mad having been “off-air” for a while. Wouldn’t break silence except to offer that a larger problem with the CANTER clue is the absence of any indication that what is “from China” is a language – many things are “from China” the country and the word China has other connotations here in Upper Cruciverbia so that this clue, if there were no homophonic debate, gets a demerit for being somewhat unfocussed.

  52. Alphalpha @51; Cantonese is not only the language, although there are of course lots of things from China, as you say:

    1. adjective Cantonese means belonging or relating to the Chinese provinces of Canton (Guangdong in Mandarin).
    2. countable noun [usually plural]The Cantonese are the people who come from the Chinese provinces of Canton (Guangdong in Mandarin).

  53. Thanks to both for the entertainment and elucidation.

    My first run through yielded only NEAT which is not uncommon for me. After that it came slowly and then a rush to finish.

    But, isn’t it nice to have HARRY instead of HAL for the prince?

  54. Lots to like in this puzzle, as usual with Paul.

    What an amazing coincidence it was seeing 7d today. Why, just the other day, I phoned a local translation services firm and asked if they had someone who could translate a letter from English into “Canter Knees” . . . and the woman said, “Sir, I have NO idea what you are talking about!” and slammed the receiver down.

    Ahh, but I bemock.

    Many thanks to Paul and Andrew and the other commenters.

  55. I was trying to resist commenting about 7d, but I finally think I must. In my part of Lancashire (Quernmore) it wouldn’t work, so I am with muffin again.

    Robi@ 30 Your sound bite is interesting but it doesn’t work for me as it appears to be an auditory Necker cube (is there such a thing?). Every time I hear it, if I am anticipating the one (Canton) it sounds like that; if I am anticipating the other, it sounds like that.

    KLColins@36 “but very few would not acknowledge that Cantonese and canter knees are close enough for crosswordland” I certainly would; I failed to get the answer because of  it.

    poc@32 “For that reason I think setters need to take particular care with homo-phonic answers” Agreed, but I would go further in view of all the dispute they always create, and say the editor ought to ban this type of pseudo-homophone.

     

  56. I got ORLANDO straight off, but we were discussing the txt-speak phrase ‘O RLY’ at work today;) “orly” is also the Polish word for “eagles”

    In 14a I thought CHORUS was another organ stop (we had DIAPASON recently) and couldn’t parse the DA_N bit (turns out I was thinking of Choralbass)

  57. Dave Ellison @55

    I didn’t like it, but it was far from the worst I’ve seen (viz. SAY TANNIC earlier this week)

    (I’m at the other corner of Lancashire)

  60. This might be late in the day for some but an early Wednesday by my standards!

    Ok, as usual it’s a technical DNF as I had to use the check button but I got there and even parsed most of it. And what a treat it was. New for me was Adam’s Ale. Had to come here for help with parsing DAWN CHORUS, HANGMAN and ORLANDO. I’ve heard of the airport at Orly but that was buried too deep! I think my CotD was GIMMICK.

    Thanks, Paul, Andrew, all commenters, and any other lurkers and latecomers!

  61. Thanks to Paul and Andrew.

    I was left with five clues unanswered, which by my standards is pretty (quite?) decent for a midweek. Two of the explanations above (4d, 17d) merited a slap to the forehead but three (2d, 11a, 19a) were not within my reach. I must file ‘Adam’s ale’ away for future use….

  63. I’m happy to be corrected, but isn’t the second vowel of ‘canter’ and ‘Cantonese’ referred to (in phonetics) as the schwa vowel? Something to do with unstressed syllables, I vaguely recall. Thus it might just qualify as a homophone.

  65. Too late to say much other than thanks to Paul and Andrew as I had several unparsed – including the much discussed CANTER.

  66. Re 7, as I’ve posted before

    Think of them as puns, not homophones.

    A homophone is a sound-(exactly-)alike. A pun is a sounds-roughly-similar-to. End of problem.

  67. Simon S @66 —

    I agree!  It’s a pun!  It’s supposed to elicit a groan, not a scholarly debate on linguistics!

    My father told me all my life, quoting somebody, that “A pun is the lowest form of wit.”  Now, thanks to the brain that I keep in all of the connected computers of the InterWeb, I can confirm that the quote was from Oscar Levant, and that my Dad missed the second half of the quote, which makes it funny:  “A pun is the lowest form of humor — when you don’t think of it first.”

    The schwa has inspired all manner of T-shirts.  (Mostly variations on “Be like schwa — schwa is never stressed.”)

  68. Well, I’m glad to learn something new: puns are now an acceptable form of wordplay!

    I can’t help wondering what Ximenes would have had to say about all this.  He’d probably insist on a suitable indicator, distinct from those used for homophones, e.g. “humorously”…  Perhaps, therefore, the clue could go:

    “Quickish pace from China, knees gone funny?”

  69. [I’ve posted a comment on homophones/sound-alikes on the General Discussion page, in case anyone is interested (and reads this!).]

  70. Failed to parse ORLANDO and CANTER. Now to go and print off today’s as the papers failed to make it to this part of Scotland this morning despite it now being printed in Glasgow.

Comments are closed.