Guardian 27,497 / Vlad

53 comments on “Guardian 27,497 / Vlad”

1. Thanks Vlad and Andrew

   Apart from the SW, I found it surprisingly easy to fill the grid, though I didn’t parse GET A ROOM, EAGLE EYE (or STORMONT in the SW).

   How old is Vlad? Dexter immediately suggested TED to me, but I remember watching him in the 60s. GEORGE Best dates to a similar era, though he does have an airport named after him.

   Favourite was STRATAGEM.

   Doesn’t 26a give paStent rather than PATENT?

2. Thank you both. This was fun and just hard enough. But does anyone these days apart from crossword setters use TENT to mean red wine? (26a)

3. A really nice puzzle from Vlad – as others have said, not too tortuous this time. I couldn’t parse UNWASHED (thanks, Andrew). Favourites were DETACHED, PTERODACTYLS, TIGON and SCORSESE. Many thanks to V & A.

4. Found this to be reasonable up to about 80% completion then came to a grinding halt – which is probably typically Vlad for me. I needed reveal and 225 for explanation – still not sure how the apostrophe fits in with 26 and I don’t really get the overall meaning of Get a Room.

   Definitely more smiles than frowns, so thank you V and A.

5. Thanks for another great blog, Andrew.

   ‘Fun and just hard enough’ – I agree with Brian @2. Great clues, with great surfaces [which meant I didn’t even notice the repetition of ‘succeeded’.

   Lots of favourites but top marks to 1ac – once I’d worked it out. I absolutely loathe the current use of go = say but here, with the missing comma and double definition of ‘object’, I thought it was brilliant.

   Many thanks for a most enjoyable challenge, Vlad – and the sun’s shining for May Day. 😉

6. 4 down should be (AGAIN EMPEROR)*

7. Thanks Andrew, I couldn’t parse a lot of these!

8. Well I filled it in but needed quite a few pointers on the parsing – thanks for the blog! 8dn needs another ‘E’ which comes from S[tyl]E as in “not content”. Lots of lovely surfaces here.

9. Thanks, Digbydavies and TheZed, both typos now corrected.

   In 26a, I think it works if you read Pa’s as “Pa has” – a fairly common trick.

   Brian @2 – I agree that tent=wine is very much a crosswordism, and even then much rarer than it used to be. I first discovered the specific tent/tinto connection (though I knew the general meaning) when blogging a Pasquale puzzle a few years ago.

10. Thanks Andrew. I found this a lot harder than you did. A small point – doesn’t 8d require S(tyl)E rather than S(tyle)?

11. Andrew @9

    Ah – I see.

12. Eileen @5 –  on your loathed “current use of go = say”, the OED has a citation  from The Pickwick Papers (1837):  “He was roused by a loud shouting of the post-boy on the leader. ‘Yo-yo-yo-yo-yoe,’ went the first boy. ‘Yo-yo-yo-yoe!’ went the second.”  🙂

13. Hi, Andrew @12- point ruefully taken. 🙁

14. Not as hard as I thought it was going to be, but some such as IBSEN and UNWASHED went in unparsed and I still don’t really get 1a either. Liked DRONGO and the reference to Ted Dexter, who made an interesting (non-cricketing) appearance on ‘Antiques Roadshow’ a few years ago.

    Thanks to Vlad and Andrew.

15. I had a bit of deja vu when I saw 1a and thought to myself – “I’ve seen this crossword last year” – the solution to 1a in a “Screw” puzzle on 16 November 2017 was also GET A ROOM.

    However on scanning the rest of the clues I thought – “No this is a different puzzle” – and went on to really enjoy it, despite finding that SW a bit devilish, as others have suggested.

    Favourites were 18a EXTORTIONIST, 25a UNWASHED, 4d OPEN MARRIAGE, 15d CASTIGATE (good old ASTI is turning into one of those repetitive crossword clues – but at least more familiar to me than TENT as in 26a), 16d MESSED UP (which started out as MUCKED UP in my grid!!!!), and 19d ESTHER (a favourite OT book!). LOI was 22d TIGON.

    Many thanks to Vlad and Andrew.

16. A good puzzle and easier than usual from this setter but, although eminently gettable from the “IBS” clueing and the crosser “N”, I thought “second half of the month” very poor.

17. Thanks Vlad and Andrew

    Was ready to be impaled but wriggled off the stake in the nick of time.

    Most enjoyable, though still struggling with the surface of 1a, it may come to me.

    Surprised no-one pointed out the technical inaccuracy of 17d STORMONT. Since the power sharing agreement broke up, one has the impression of the place only containing cobwebs,  a few dustballs and the odd forgotten civil servant joining paperclips together…

18. Re 1a Etymology
    Suggesting that the couple rent a hotel or motel room to continue amorous activities in private.
    Phrase get a room (idiomatic, informal, sometimes humorous) Used to instruct a couple to stop displaying physical affection in public.

    FSNP Meant to thank you specifically, Andrew, for the further comment on 24a DRONGO, one of my Dad’s favourite words. On reflection, it’s perhaps a more effective and evocative Australian slang word than “dickhead’.

19. Thanks Vlad and Andrew.

    Too difficult for me; TENT = wine is, according to Collins ‘obsolete.’ Rod = GUN is apparently ‘American slang.’

     

20. Excellent crossword, too many ticks to list them all.

    For a while I was assuming Dexter must indicate R, and it brought a big smile when the penny dropped that it was Ted.

    “Drogon” would have worked for 24a. Might have been a bit obscure for those not familiar with Game of Thrones.

21. Andrew @9 and Julie @18. Thanks for your comments – all clear now!

22. Thanks to Vlad and Andrew. I found this quite tough (as usual for me with Vlad) particularly in the SW. I also had to come here to clarify some parsing. Thought I had cracked it, but doh a DNF for me because I put recounter (unparsed) for 3d. That said still and enjoyable challenge and I did like folding money and castigate. Thanks again to Vlad and Andrew.

23. Not a good one for a learner. Couldn’t get on Vlad’s wavelength. Got a few (some of which I struggled to parse) then gave up, as I wasn’t enjoying it. One for the First Team, not the Academy. Become = Get, Stop = Die etc. were not usages I’ve encountered before in my short career. Thanks to Andrew for furthering my education.

24. Thanks to Vlad and Andrew. Like others I needed help with parsing – and Ted Dexter and George Best were not familiar to me (though I had come across the latter before)  – and I struggled with TIGON and DRONGO.

25. [Keyser@23 – I well remember when I began to be intrigued by cryptic crosswords: at that time, for me, just getting a couple of clues out was an achievement. Your comment on the Chifonie yesterday was indicative that you are learning the craft quite quickly.  It is all about practice and learning the “codes” that setters use. I still find it very tough when I don’t get on the wavelength of the setter. This is all about fun and the clues that give us an “ah ha” moment. I continue to learn so much from being part of the 15² blog. Sometimes the light bulb moments come from reading the solver’s solutions and the comments below. It’s an ongoing learning experience for me, I must say. Hang in there.]

26. Lovely seeing Vlad on Tuesday.

    I think tent for wine is like Cher for singer.

    Dont hear much of Norfolk. town these days

     

    Thanks Andrew and Vlad.

27. Managed to finish from definitions and crossers, but the parsing of several solutions defeated me. Thanks to Andrew for the enlightenment!

28. Some really good cluing in this one, a cut above the norm.  I loved GET A ROOM, MOODINESS, RECRUITER and especially EAGLE EYE, for the great surface.

    Thanks, Vlad and Andrew (PS the second half of the 9’s parse has gone AWOL!)

29. I’ve never heard of drongo as a dickybird but it couldn’t be anything else when the crossers went in. Wiki confirmed my suspicions. Regarding archaic and obsolete words in crosswords – I’m sure that sometimes these obscure jewels are the only ones that fit when compiling and furthermore shouldn’t we also try to make sure our beautiful language doesn’t fall completely under the trampling feet of modernists. Just sayin’, is all!

30. This seemed decidedly tricky at first glance, but gave way fairly steadily with plenty of entertaining clues. A fine crossword.

    Thanks to Vlad and Andrew

31. Andrew @12 — the use of “go” to mean “make a sound” has been around for awhile.  “‘Clang, clang,’ clang goes the trolley,” for instance.  The boys in Pickwickland are more making noises than speaking words, so I’m with Eileen that using “go” to refer to speech is new and disagreeable.

32. Firstly I’d like to thank you Andrew for the format of your blog – leaving a big space after your opening remarks. I saw Vlad and thought this will be tough and having only done 6 or so on the first pass and being bamboozled by the likes of 1a and 1d I thought “I’ll have a peek at 225”. And I saw your opening comment without revealing any solutions and went back to the puzzle with more hope!
    We did get there in the end with several unparsed which have been mentioned as have the several ticks I had.
    All fair enough in the end, and still with plenty of learning for the likes of me who have been doing crosswords for a while. Keyser – t’s lovely to have your contributions and keep at it like JinA says.
    Many thanks to V&A.

33. I forgot to add — good puzzle, thanks, Vlad.  And thanks to Andrew for an enjoyable blog.

34. Thanks to Vlad and Andrew.

    Glad to hear some are having a sunny May Day – it’s bucketing down here in the West of Ireland.  I’m with Eileen@5: “things” go bump in the night, people say things.  Although not always, as in “She goes “OMG” and I’m like “DOH”” where nothing is actually said, but it’s funny when Paul Howard does it.  Another annoying modernism is the constant insertion of “So” at the beginning of a sentence – is this just an Irish thing?  While it’s annoying, it’s hard to condemn since many (most?) will use “Well” or some other linguistic starting block to kick-start a verbal delivery and that must at some point have been annoyingly new.

    Back to the crossword and I had  few – IBSEN, UNWASHED,SCORSESE, STROMONT – where I needed Andrew’s help, but on reflection I forgive myself on the basis that these are the impalers I’ve come to expect from Vlad.  The rest I really enjoyed with ADIEU taking best in show, followed closely by BY GEORGE.

35. BTW JinA@15, I was another who mucked up initially.

36. Ah well, nearly: I had ‘recounter’ at 3d on the grounds that this was someone who narrates. Doesn’t parse, of course, but if I worried about Vlad parsing I’d never get started (though, fair to say, I had only this and two others with ? today).

    Growing up, I had two sporting heroes, Ted Dexter and Bobby Moore, and in terms of style, who better could they be? So DET was never a problem.

37. Hi Keyser @23 – I’d just like to reiterate what Julie @25 and WhiteKing @32 said. I know I’m learning new things all the time, as new setters come along and keep pushing the boundaries. It’s just a case of trying to keep up. 😉

    Re your two queries:

    get = become – how about ‘I’m getting / becoming bored with this argument’?

    die = stop: the synonym is actually ‘stop working‘ – as in ‘My washing machine’s died on me’.

38. Another DNF, once again Vlad takes more than his customary pint of blood!  I guessed at the expression FOLDING MONEY, not one I’ve ever used (is it an Americanism?).  But didn’t get around to writing it in (toyed with SPENDING MONEY until I realised it was one letter too many!).

    A pity that a mostly superb puzzle has a few blemishes, mostly down to dodgy or difficult parsings, I reckon.  In GET A ROOM, I just couldn’t see any definition, or surface.  All right, I suppose an “amorous” couple might consider the next step….  A write-in from the wordplay solely.

    IBSEN I just couldn’t parse.  “NE” as “second half of the month”?  Come off it!!  We’re not even in June yet (was this puzzle scheduled to be printed in June by any chance?).  Anyway, too much indirection and not even entertaining.  Sorry.

    In UNWASHED I mis-parsed it – but now I see the correct parsing it’s pretty neat!  I was wondering whether we’d see words like ALMIGHTY, DOLLAR, PEN, MIGHTIER, SWORD, DARK, STORMY, NIGHT (now there’s an idea for a theme!) but not this time.

    Ditto with RECRUITER.  Why oh why do I keep missing RU as a sport?!  1d it, I used to play the wretched game at school…!

    As for SCORSESE, I still can’t figure out the parsing not even with Andrew’s help.  “Nick” and “score” are a rather vague connection, in any case.

    TIGON was clever but looks to me too obviously like a filler word.  How many on here will never have heard of this beast?  At least the clueing is fair, once you admit “T” for “tense”.

    And then there’s STORMONT.  Excellent wordplay, except that does “Labour” (capital L, note!) really do duty as an anagrind?  Are you reading this, Jeremy?

    But a pity that these few negatives spoil what is otherwise brilliant.  Too much to admire: e.g. GODDAM, EAGLE EYE, CASTIGATE, ADIEU, GUNG HO, DETACHED (for those who remember Ted Dexter, anyway – superb surface), PTERODACTYLS, EXTORTIONIST, STRATAGEM … the list goes on and on.

    Thanks to the Count and Andrew.

39. I got a number of these by a process of osmosis rather than deduction- GET A ROOM is a case in point- and there was a good deal of parsing after the event but I really enjoyed this. I’m beginning to find this setter rather amusing.
    Thanks Vlad.

40. @ Julie in Australia & @ WhiteKing – thank you for the encouragement, it’s very welcome.

    @ Eileen – lightbulb moment! Thank you!!

41. Thank you Vlad and Andrew for an enjoyable and not too difficult solve. Mostly finished in two tube journeys.

    There is a picture of a 14ac in G2, “Notes and Queries”.

    Obscure words: a surprising number, including “tent”, appear in Bradford’s “Crossword Solver’s Dictionary”.

42. Good crossword. Took longer to parse than to actually solve.

43. Oh dear. I just don’t like Vlad very much. He(?)……well could only be a bloke….seems to epitomise the chopped up and mangled kind of parsing that leaves me irritated. Not all of it, sure, but enough to lose my interest. And I know most of you clearly enjoy this kind of contortionism so it’s my problem. It’s like Art. If you have to have it laboriously explained to you something is lost. Enough.

44. I didn’t remember GET A ROOM from Screw’s puzzle in November (thank you JinA for pointing out that earlier occurrence), but I see that it was a very good &lit type of clue, just like today’s.  It’s a phrase I don’t think I’ve heard before.

    I started this crossword on the train this morning but had no time for it after that until this evening.  I was keen to finish it and hastily put in RECOUNTER at 3d (like Pethay @22 and Trailman @36), and I thought the word in front of MONEY could have been more or less anything, so I left it.  (I rarely hear of ‘folding money’, only paper money, plastic money, or notes.)  Apart from that, or rather those, everything went in as it should, and there was a lot to appreciate in the clever tricks this setter put in front of me.  OPEN MARRIAGE and MOODINESS stood out for me, as well as GET A ROOM.

    Many thanks to Vlad, and to Andrew for the blog.

45. I enjoyed this puzzle tremendously!  Some great clues and chuckle-inducing PDMs.  My favorites include UNWASHED, BY GEORGE (a clue I could never have solved a few years ago, as George Best is virtually unheard of here in the US, but he is a frequent visitor to the Guardian Cryptic!), EAGLE EYE, MOODINESS, and my CotD, OPEN MARRIAGE.

    But even better for me than the above mentioned clues was 24ac, because the moment the penny dropped on DRONGO, I was off and racing to YouTube to search, find (hooray!), and revisit a much loved and much played album from my college and post-college days, by The Drongos, a New Zealand based band that was  popular in NYC (according to Wikipedia) and also very popular in upstate New York, where I attended college in the early 1980s and where they used to come around to play in town once or twice a year.  Their top hit on the college radio was, as I recall, “Don’t Touch Me”, but anyone interested can listen to their whole album here.  I have been listening to it from work today, and have been in an unbeatable good mood, no matter what pressures and crises the workplace has held for me today! [JinA – unlike The Church, I *did* see The Drongos perform live a few times.  Always a great show.  They were talented (in a 1980s-sounding way).  A pity they didn’t make a bigger splash in the pop music world.]

    Speaking of music, I believe that The Tokens originally recorded their hit 1961 song as “The Tigon Sleeps Tonight”, but the producer persuaded them to record an alternate version using “Lion” instead, and that was the one that made it big.

    I couldn’t pass up on the opportunity to comment on 2d.  Similar to observations I have made here on 15^2 when a certain three-lettered bird has made its appearance in the Guardian Cryptic, I think that Americans can’t hear “tit” without snickering, and therefore the term used here in the US is always TIDBIT, never TITBIT.

    Many thanks to Vlad and Andrew and the other commenters.

46. It took me quite a while to get used to Vlad (or Tyrus)’s style but eventually I got there!

    This was just another nice puzzle by a setter whose style is rather unique within the Guardian stable [at least, that’s what I think]. Today I (read: we) couldn’t fully parse UNWASHED (25ac) and SCORSESE (8d), clues with the answers very clear/obvious.

    A clue like 23ac (IBSEN) is, at times, typical for Vlad.  The surface is splendid but the construction less elegant. ‘A B Out’ meaning ‘A with B going around it’ is not my favourite thing, just like ‘around A’ meaning ‘reversal of A’ is not high on my list. Yes, it is all justifiable but that doesn’t mean that I like it. To each their own.

    A couple of other things. UNWED = ‘single’, I find a bit dubious. I was UNWED all my life but more than half of it not single. One who’s single is unwed, one who’s unwed doesn’t have to be single. And – I saw it right away – the bookshop is Waterstones, not Waterstone or Waterstone’s.

    But, but. A very nice crossword altogether.

    Thanks Vlad & Andrew [also for what’s to come this weekend  🙂 ]

     

     

     

47. It appears I am the only one who found this over-contrived with clunky surfaces?

    More like pulling teeth.

    Truly the worst Vlad ever for me.

    The solutions had to be dragged from the clues and there were no “Why didn’t I see that?” moments.

    No fun whatsoever.

     

     

48. Sil@46 – I was going to comment after your contribution a few puzzles back but never got round to it. I really enjoy your insights into the clues and how they do or don’t work (for you). To me you provide a concise, objective “technical” evaluation of the clues and I learn a lot from that. Thank you.

49. Thanks to Andrew for the blog and to others (mostly) who commented.

50. Now, that’s very kind of you, WhiteKing.

    I do not comment as often anymore on Fifteensquared as in the last couple of years or so before.

    I do like good surface readings. But I also like setters who meanwhile write technically sound clues. Arachne, Picaroon, Nutmeg, Tramp, Vlad too and – at the ‘other’ side – Serpent, Hoskins, Klingsor and Tees spring to mind. There are more of course. Deep in my heart, I think Moley’s Quiptic (yesterday) was poor but it somehow slipped through the net. I always liked the FT very much but since Roger Squires [there Dante, here Rufus] said Goodbye the likes of Hamilton and Janus were given more of a chance, the overall level really went down. Well, let’s call it inconsistency. However, when solvers enjoy a crossword who am I to tell ’em that there’s something wrong?

    Not so long ago, a blogger replied after I said ‘apparently nobody seems to care about it’ with ‘why on earth should we care?’ For me , that was a turning point. If you like crosswords just as they are – whether there are technical flaws or not – , please like them, as much as you can. However, as someone who solves 20+ broadsheets crosswords a week [including The Times], I have become to understand them and what I like and what I do not like.  If others disagree, fine, if others become indifferent, well, that’s another matter.

51. Janus should be Jason!

52. I had to come here for several solutions, and for the parsings of several more clues 🙁

    I just never remember to use ‘cher’ for ‘singer’, or ‘tent’ for ‘wine’.
    At least I do seem able to remember ‘RU’ for ‘sport’ 🙂 I wonder whether any setter will ever dare to venture ‘RL’ instead….

    Another example of my ornery contrariness/neurological idiosyncrasy (delete as you prefer) is that I ‘got’ 1a straight away, and enjoyed the clue’s neat surface too.
    After initially getting 1a, 2d, 3d, and 4d, I wasted a lot of time and effort trying to find a solution for 9a that meant ‘retired hurt’ and *ended* with Mr. Dexter’s first name [facepalm]

    Alphalpha @ 34.
    I wonder whether the recent spread of this Hibernian use of ‘so’ might be attributable to the success across the Anglosphere of ‘Heaneywolf’. The poet’s introduction to his translation evokes his “big voiced Scullions” beautifully for me, so I actually quite like the usage. I prefer it to every other suggestion that I have encountered for an idiom to grab attention and introduce a change of subject. E.g. the execrable ‘yo!’ [puke]

53. Poor clueing in this poor crossword. I am in my 60’s and love cricket…. who’s Ted Dexter? And if I was young …. who’s George Best?
    Setters must be more open to crossword addicts who range from 9 (when I started the Telegraph cryptic ) to those of our younger generation!
    Let us have setters who clue well with a broader appreciation of the age range of everybody. Thank you.

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