Guardian 27,566 / Paul

62 comments on “Guardian 27,566 / Paul”

1. Some Pauline gems this morning!  1, 17 and 18 down all had me laughing our loud.

2. Thanks both. I don’t understand why Paul gave us the clear RUM in 6d without disguising it

3. Thanks, Eileen, for the interesting and thorough blog.
   As a sailor, I enjoyed 11a AHOY THERE.
   I had a fair bit of trouble in the SW.
   When I (finally) saw it, I did like WISECRACK at 18a.
   There was certainly the occasional AARGH (13a) moment for me in this crossword. I mean, what word other than AARON, could possibly start with AA?
   15d PLAYA was an unfamiliar reference.
   For me, WHALING at 18d was the clue of the day.
   Many thanks to Paul, and of course to Eileen, a blogger who is both lioness and doyenne!

4. Thank you, Eileen.

   An interestingly high no. of punctuation marks from Paul today – including 8 question marks.

   Not quite so many bonkers surfaces as his last outing I’m pleased to say.

   Ticks at SAY SO & WHALING.

   Nice weekend, all.

    

5. Thanks Paul and Eileen

   For a long time I had a complete top, but only ESTONIA in the bottom, then thSE went in – I took too long to see MUFFS! – then finally the SW.

   I loved LEFT BRAIN.

   Why is “spend” = “waste”? It depends what you spend it on!

6. I spend most of my money on alcohol and music. I waste the rest. LOI was afoot. I was sure it was about. Good Friday crossword. Thanks to Paul and Eileen

7. I was feeling chuffed at having finished this, then I came here only to find that I had ABOUT for 3d. Hasty use of the check button reveals that Eileen is right – but I think my answer fits the clue better!

   Quite a few I couldn’t parse – 17d, for example, where BAHRAIN didn’t occur to me, and 19a where the step from MUFFINS to MUFFS insisted on staying out of sight. So many thanks to Eileen, and to Paul for almost letting me finish.

8. Another hasty ‘about’ at 3d – so that warm glow of achievement not quite justified! Thanks to Paul as ever for a great solve.

9. I had ABOUT first, too, but couldn’t quite parse it – and then the penny dropped.

   Dutchman @6 – you’re not the only one: see here

    

10. Eileen @9 – I had it as a double definition: “Abroad” as in “(out and) about” and “not very far” as in “it’s about here somewhere…”.  Not sure that AFOOT is as close a synonym to “abroad”?

11. Excellent blog, thank you Eileen, necessary for me as again DNF, but it’s Friday, isn’t it. Thanks also to Paul. I liked 1d but MOH thought it was a shade too cheeky, comme on dit.

12. Thanks Eileen. I liked No Ah

13. Thanks Eileen. I think it was originally attributed to the gangster actor George Raft. But I could be wrong. I did actually see George Best once -at an airport, in a bar surrounded by beautiful women – as some wag once said: George – what went wrong? !

14. Like Trismegistus I was happy to romp through a Paul, only to be dnf-lated by about instead of afoot (definitely better). Thanks Eileen for the links (reminded me that, pre budget cuts, our Auntie ABC used to have a half-hour of Brit comedy every morning: My Word, My Music, Round the Horn, I’m Sorry I [times 2, and vale Humphrey L], Goons, Hancock, etc., etc. I miss them terribly). So apart from being slow to twig trip as an anagrind in 10a, and not parsing Bahrain with no ah, and what I’ve said above, it was a one-cuppa job. In other words I think the clever Paul has won the day.

    Thanks Paul and Eileen.

15. Thanks to Paul and Eileen. I needed help with parsing, for I missed Noah = no a and focus of seer = ee. I also was slowed down by my misspelling of DYSPEPSIA and PEKINGESE. Maybe I’ve been doing too many puzzles, but I’ve encountered SAY SO at least three times recently.

16. A challenge to complete but enjoyable throughout. However, I needed Eileen’s help with a few of the parsings. I can’t tell you how happy I was when I got 17! That made my day, and made up for the time wasted trying to shoe-horn SCARLET in for SPECTRA. What an idiot. When the penny dropped you could hear the clang for miles!

    Thanks Paul & Eileen, great work.

17. Also, is it SPEN(d), or is it SPEN(t)? Spent material can be waste material… nuclear waste for example.

18. Good idea, Keyser @17

19. Like Trismegistus @7 I think ABOUT works better, but that’s a small quibble in a very enjoyable puzzle.

    I particularly liked B(ah)RAIN, MUFFS and WHALING. Surprised to see that AARGH makes it into the dictionary, but there it is and why not?

    Thanks to Paul, and to Eileen for more insights into the clues. I guess I’m a lazy solver and can’t always take the trouble to parse completely myself.

20. You could well be right, Keyser – thanks for that.

21. PS: agree about spend/waste, maybe waste needs a ‘?’; and wonder about ‘in any case=moreover’, which is more like ‘in addition’. Any examples?

22. grantinfreo @21 – I think I can see myself using either in the hope of concluding an argument but I’m going out shortly and haven’t time to think up examples. [How’s that for prevarication?]

23. No prob Eileen, enjoy the day.

24. Thank you Paul for a fun puzzle and Eileen for a super blog.

    I was another who failed to get the Noah and seer parts of the parsings for EYESORE and LEFT BRAIN, and I entered ABOUT instead of AFOOT.

    The HIPPO entering the house made me laugh, small ones sometimes used to go into the house of a friend who lived on an island in the Kagera River near us in Uganda – the group used to come up to graze in the evening, fortunately the large ones could not get through the door.

    I was lucky to see At the Drop of a Hat in the Fortune Theatre in 1959, thanks again Eileen for the link.

25. Thank you to Paul and Eileen. Completed relatively quickly on a train from London to Oxford.

    I was an about at 3dn too. I think it works as a dd.

    Keyser – to be annoyingly pedantic spent nuclear material is not waste as it is sent for reprocessing.

26. grantinfreo @21: Don’t worry – the train may not be late, and in any case Eileen has her mobile. To substitute “moreover” just about works, but it would be rather Victorian?

27. Fun Friday puzzle!  My FOI, OOH LA LA, was also my favorite (and also instantly reminded me of this).  I also enjoyed HIPPO, AARGH, WHALING, PEKINGESE, and LEFT BRAIN (for its clever wordplay — the surface was a bit awkward).  I also enjoyed the Flanders & Swann and Morecambe & Wise clips in the blog, and as always, the interesting and amusing comments.

    Many thanks to Paul and Eileen and the other commenters.  Happy weekend to all.

28. Glad to see so many agreeing that “about” is a better answer for 3d.

    I always feel that a clue should not require crossers for an unambiguous solution. Can anybody explain why from the clue alone “wailing” is not just as good an answer as “whaling”? I often feel this way for “sounds like” clues, especially since the two alternatives usually differ in a small way so most (and occasionally all) crossers work for either.

29. Marienkaefer @ 25. You may well be right but I got this from Collins: “nuclear fuel that has been irradiated in a nuclear reactor to the point where it is no longer useful in sustaining a nuclear reaction. Radioactive waste is simply spent fuel.”

30. 2d I don’t see how Up = on display? Sorry I’m a bit of a newbie!

31. Howard @28: the soundalike indicator “out loud” is next to the definition of “wailing” but not next to the definition of “whaling”; also, the former is in the middle of the clue where the true solution is rarely if ever allowed to lurk, even in the relaxed surroundings of the Graun. The soundalike clues that frustrate me are the ones where the soundalike indicator is in the middle.

    I agree that “about” is just as good for 3d; it’s what I had.

32. Chris @30 : “my Rembrandt is on display in the billiard room” === “my Rembrandt is up in the billiard room”

    (in case any burglars are reading this, my Rembrandt is *not* up in the billiard room)

33. Thanks Richard!

34. Thanks to Paul and Eileen. I found it a nice puzzle which was tough in places. That said I am another about, which I thought made sense, but hey ho. Last one in whaling which for some reason I just could not twig. Another who liked left brain and I also liked hackneyed. Thanks again to Paul and Eileen.

35. Thanks to Paul and Eileen.

    How nice of Paul to include Muffin (@5etc) in his pleasant and delightful offering.

    JinA@3 Careful there – you know what I mean…

     

36. A bit of a grind for me with some delightful pdms. I’m with DaveMc in liking LEFT BRAIN for the clever wordplay and also with JinA in having WHALING as my cotd where the surface/dd was excellent.
    I wasn’t convinced by ABOUT so resorted to the check button and thence to AFOOT which I think is better because “a foot” is not very far whereas “a bout” means nothing in this context. I now see it as the same type of wordplay as SAY SO and NOAH.
    So a dnf for me – or maybe a dfwh (did finish with help).
    Thanks to Paul for the puzzle, Eileen for the blog and Cookie for the HIPPO anecdote.

37. Another to come a cropper with ‘about’. It’s not as correct as AFOOT but it’s at least a vaguely plausible answer.

    Really loved this though with 1d, 16d, 17d and 18d being the highlights, both for surface and parsing. Always like being reminded of F & S references as well. What a story, Cookie @24!

    Neo in the FT yesterday and now this – 2 of the best puzzles for a while.

    Thanks to Paul and Eileen

38. A good one to come back to after a few missed days. We are currently singing the Hippopotamus song in our community choir..very tricky to get all the words in but great fun.
    Thanks for the blog and the links, Eileen. Also thanks to Paul once again for the lol ones..aargh, ooh la la and no ah.

39. Snap for ABOUT but I think AFOOT is much better. I liked WISECRACK and AARGH. I also liked PLAYA which I didn’t get,annoyingly enough.
    A nice puzzle despite my lack of success.
    Thanks Paul

40. A frustratingly quick solve but, being Paul, still much enjoyment to be had. WHALING (a genuine, and supersurfaced &lit in my opinion), LEFT BRAIN and, of course, the delightful OOH LA LA were top drawer stuff. And for those, like me, who sometimes wonder if a good surface can get in the way of slick wordplay – how about EYESORE? And for those who enjoy a nice “story-telling” surface (and for others who sometimes despair here at “meaningless” surfaces), there’s more than a generous serving here! Almost Arachnean in that regard.
    Yes indeed – Paul is a very special compiler and we are very fortunate to have him entertain us. I’ve said it before, and doubtless will again, how does he do it?!
    Many thanks – and to Eileen of course….

41. I got AFOOT from the wordplay (a small distance) but can’t see how it means ABROAD. Can someone help?

42. Richard Poole @32 – Thank you!  I had to read your post out loud to everyone in the office (doing the cryptic at work … had to explain much along the way, but it lost nothing) Brilliant.  I was so pleased to get a la loo and No’ah’ by myself! 🙂 … great way to start the weekend.

     

43. [much later..watched local footy, then bed]
    John R@26, thanks for that; yes your example works pretty well, and moreover my SOED has ‘moreover: now only literary’ which accounts for its, as you say, Victorian tone.

44. NNI @41 –

    I believe both AFOOT and ABROAD can mean “in circulation”.  I do not have access to the same nice Chambers dictionary (hard copy?) editions that many of the other commenters on this forum refer to regularly, and the “21st Century” edition of Chambers — the only free online searchable version I can seem to find — has a much more limited definitions database, and gives only one definition of AFOOT (“being prepared or already in progress or operation”), but the online Collins dictionary gives “in circulation” as one of the alternate definitions for both words.  Hope this helps.

45. Julie in Australia @3, Alphalpha @35 —

    I just got it.  Ha ha!

46. 8d I don’t remember focus = take the middle letters of. Is it common? Can’t say I like it.
    Thanks to Paul and Eileen

47. Are there not too many E’s for PEKINGESE?

48. jeff cumberbatch @47 –

    See Eileen’s explanation in the blog.  Two Es in KEEPING and one in [femal]E is just the right number.

49. [DaveMc@27, I loved the Blossom Dearie link.
    Dutchman@6, I really appreciated your post, and the smile it evoked, especially when Eileen posted the George Best link@9.
    Cookie@24, you have such interesting stories!!!!
    I remain embarrassed that I had ABOUT instead of AFOOT at 3d so I really was a DNF, but at least I had company!
    Sorry Alphalpha@35, and apologies also to gaufrid and fellow solvers, for breaching the rules in my comment.]

50. JinA@49

    The Prize is now posted so no harm done 25a IN ANY CASE. Moreover, no harm has been done:)

51. [JinA@49: Just took on that you use the square bracket to indicate off-topic ishtuff]

52. DaveMc@44

    Thanks. I’m familiar with the saying “What’s afoot?” but never knew the same use for “abroad”. It’s not in my admittedly old and falling apart 1970’s version of Chambers.

53. Hard to see how such an engaging puzzle could be improved. Unless, perhaps, Paul (or some Higher Power) could grant an amnesty to all those of us who had ABOUT.

54. Just to mention that Ernie Wise was always adamant that he was NOT Eric Morecambe’s straight man – it was a double act. But his less than stellar career after his partner’s death suggests that the popular perception was right.

55. Interesting to see that I’m credited with comment 26. At the time it was sent I was just settling down with Paul’s puzzle on a train and didn’t complete it (including a lazy ‘about’ instead of ‘afoot’ at 3d) until 30 minutes after the comment appeared! One of Paul’s less tricky efforts but a thoroughly enjoyable solve nevertheless,  but has a Grauniad gremlin entered Fifteensquared?

56. JohnR @55

    “but has a Grauniad gremlin entered Fifteensquared?”

    No, it is just that two people are using the same name when posting a comment. There is no way that I can prevent this from happening other than by adjusting a setting so that anyone who wants to add a comment has to register on the site and then login before doing so. This is something I am loath to do for various reasons.

57. I’m new to crypric crosswords, tried about 10 or so from the Guardian in the last month, normally getting a handful of answers. Got 9 in this one which I was quite happy with, and am kicking myself with a few others having read the answers (cupboards!).
    Find this blog useful, will be re-visiting for sure, thanks!
    Please can someone explain how very quietly gives PP? Thanks!

58. superkev @57

    Welcome to 15².

    “Please can someone explain how very quietly gives PP? Thanks!”

    This comes from music notation:

    P = piano = soft/softly or quiet/quietly

    PP = pianissimo = very soft/softly or very quiet/quietly

59. Ah, thanks Gaufrid, makes sense!

60. JohnR @55 – my recollection is that I “registered” as JohnR many years ago – I didn’t know that Gaufrid had relaxed the procedure. A minor irritation, so far…

61. No doubt nobody will see this except Eileen, who (I now know) as blogger gets comments from now till forever.

    I’ve just learned a new British spelling — in the US the little dog is spelled Pekinese, without the G.  One of those one-offs to remember, like “kerb.”

    I lived for a time in France, and while I was there I never once heard anybody say “oo-la-laaaa” in that drawn-out affected way that Anglophones adopt.  But I heard all the time a gruff “Oh-la-la” in about the tone of voice I’d use for “sheesh!”

    While I was in France I used to listen to the Beeb, and one day I heard on it that the Russians had announced they were going to stop hunting for Wales.  I sent in a letter saying something like, “Couldn’t someone send them a map?” and got a response (to my totally frivolous question — the British are wonderful!) saying something like “Mispronunciations happen now and then.”

     

     

     

     

62. Thanks, Valentine 😉 – I’m just back from a lovely three days with friends in Norfolk.

    My Scottish husband and my choir master wouldn’t like whales / wails [or Wales!] either but I’ve long ago stopped spelling it out.

Comments are closed.