The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27643.
I am feeling rather dozy today, which may explain why I made heavier weather of this than usual with Paul. I would be interested to know what others thought. Last week I criticized Crucible for the number of envelope clues, but, although there are a fair number here as well, it did not bother me – they are used far better, with greater variety and apposite indicators. Having struggled through to the end (23D EMAIL actually), I can look back on a wealth of excellent clues. Thanks Paul.
The utility I use to format the blog correctly located 9,12, not 19,13 as listed on the Guardian website. As a result, I did not even notice the error until after completing the blog, and then forgot to correct it or point it out. Now done.
| Across | ||
| 1 | DEPOSE | Unseat rider astride second of horses entering river (6) |
| A double envelope (‘astride’ and ‘entering’) of O (‘second of hOrses’) in PS (post scriptum, ‘rider’) in DEE (if not setters’ favourite ‘river’, close to it). | ||
| 4 | TESSERA | Tile God put back (7) |
| A reversal (‘back’) of ARES (Greek ‘god’ of war) plus SET (‘put’) | ||
| 9 | STEEL WOOL | Possible scrubber in fishwife, say, occupying seat (5,4) |
| An envelope (‘occupying’) of EEL (‘fish’-) plus W (-‘wife’) in STOOL (‘seat’). | ||
| 10 | RESIT | Again take nap, one tucked in (5) |
| An envelope (‘tucked in’) of I (‘one’) in REST (‘nap’). | ||
| 11 | ASSET | Dog missing lead — good point (5) |
| A subtraction: [b]ASSET (‘dog’) minus its first letter (‘missing lead’). | ||
| 12 | See 19 | |
| 13, 14 | FISHNET STOCKINGS | Sexy clothing skintight, confess it’s kinky (7,9) |
| An anagram (‘it’s kinky’) of ‘skintight confess’. | ||
| 15, 2 | GARLIC PRESS | That’s designed to crush Le Monde etc, moving left to right? (6,5) |
| GALLIC PRESS (‘Le Monde etc’) with one L changed to an R (‘moving left to right’) | ||
| 17 | POSSET | Writer’s drinking vessel for spiced milk (6) |
| An envelope (‘drinking’) of SS (steam ship, ‘vessel’) in POET (‘writer’), for a drink of milk, curdled with wine or ale, and spiced. | ||
| 19, 12 | DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS | Where conifers are saved, one might say, inspires a film star of old (7,9) |
| An envelope (‘inspiring’) of ‘a’ in DOUGLAS FIR BANKS (‘where conifers are saved’, one might say’, a typical Pauline whimsy). Sr. or even Jr. would fit the ‘of old’. | ||
| 22 | ANKLE SOCK | Woollen item pulled up, one lacks pants with kilt for a start (5,4) |
| A charade of ANKLESOC, an anagram (‘pants’) of ‘one lacks’; plus K (‘Kilt for a start’). | ||
| 24 | HORDE | Pack stock for the audience? (5) |
| Sounds like (‘for the audience’) HOARD (‘stock’). | ||
| 26 | HENNA | William S’s bride returns for dye (5) |
| A reversal (‘returns’) of ANNE H (Hathaway, wife of ‘William S[hakespeare]”). | ||
| 27 | HATCHBACK | Shade second car (9) |
| A charade of HATCH (‘shade’ in the sense of filling an area of a drawing with fine lines) plus BACK (‘second’). | ||
| 28 | MOSELLE | Flash dealer contracted to produce wine (7) |
| A charade of MO (moment, ‘flash’) plus SELLE[r] (‘dealer’) minus its last letter (‘contracted’), for wine produced on the banks of the German river. | ||
| 29 | EDITOR | My boss has tried unsuccessfully to restrict obscenities, primarily (6) |
| An envelope (‘to restrict’) of O (‘Obscenities, primarily’) in EDITR, an anagram (‘unsuccessfully’) of ‘tried’. Interesting surface. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | DISTAFF | Female duck shaking tail, first to take a dip? (7) |
| An envelope ((‘to take a dip?’) of IST (‘first’) in DAFF[y] (‘duck’; Looney Tunes cartoon character) minus its last letter (‘shaking tail’). | ||
| 2 | See 15 | |
| 3 | SPLIT ENDS | Getting forks out to skewer books, those unpleasantly dry? (5,4) |
| An envelope (‘to skewer’) of LIT (as in Eng. Lit. ‘books’) in SPENDS (‘forks out’). | ||
| 4 | TELLING | Significant disclosure (7) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 5 | SCRUB | Clean bush (5) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 6 | ESSENTIAL | Pasture ultimately silent, as ground needed (9) |
| An anagram (‘ground’) of E (‘pasturE ultimately’) plus ‘silent as’. Or, if you like, a charade of E …. | ||
| 7 | ARTIST | Bacon, say, in flan is heading to the bottom (6) |
| TART IS (‘flan is’) with the first letter moved to the end (‘heading to the bottom’ in a down light), most likely for Francis BACON. | ||
| 8 | SOFFIT | Very suited to accommodate fine architectural feature (6) |
| An envelope (‘to accommodate’) of F (‘fine’) in SO FIT (‘very suited’). | ||
| 14 | See 13 | |
| 16 | ROUGHSHOD | Suggested dosh offering security on the hoof? (9) |
| Wordplay in the answer: ‘dosh’ is an anagram (ROUGH) of SHOD; ROUGHSHOD, now surviving mainly in the expression “ride roughshod” refers to a horse fitted with shoes having projecting nails for extra traction. | ||
| 18 | TROCHEE | Foot mythical bird put in the shoe, finally (7) |
| An envelope (‘put in’) of ROC (‘mythical bird’) in ‘the’ plus E (‘shoE, finally’). | ||
| 19 | DAKOTA | Transport aircraft close to Dunkirk, a blighter soaring around it (6) |
| An envelope (‘around it’) of K (‘close to DunkirK‘) in DAOTA, a reversal (‘soaring’ in a down light) of A TOAD (‘a blighter’). | ||
| 20 | SPEAKER | Vassal almost stealing crown, as chair of assembly (7) |
| An envelope (‘stealing’) of PEAK (‘crown’) in SER[f] (‘vassal’) minus its last letter (‘almost’). | ||
| 21 | FATHOM | Comprehend female, in short (6) |
| A charade of F (‘female’) plus AT HOM[e] (‘in’) minus its last letter (‘short’). | ||
| 23 | Message unconvincing, one breaks up (5) | |
| A reversal (‘up’ in a down light) of LIAME, an envelope (‘breaks’) of I (‘one’) in LAME (‘unconvincing’). | ||
| 25 | ROAST | Criticise traditional meal (5) |
| Double definition. | ||
A bit of a trial for me.
But looked good after the fact.
22ac: I have several pairs of ankle socks, and none are woollen.
By def. you don’t pull them up.
Unless, in the parsing stakes, I need to pull my socks up.
19,13: Good laff eh?
Pretty steady solve, starting at the socks you (actually don’t, as you say, Trovatore) pull up and ending at posset, about which all all I could remember was ‘remedy’, but spiced milk it indeed is. Not great at actors, so the bank for firs got a groan/laugh when it popped, as did the Gallic/garlic press. S as initial is having a bit of a run it seems, and Bacon the brushwielder is a handy regular. I stared dumbly at the crossers for roast and horde for minutes, don’t know why, the first being an old gimme and the second pretty well worn as well.
Enjoyed it all, thanks ever so Paul and PeterO.
PS wondered about forks out skewering lit when it goes round it, not through.
Thanks Paul and PeterO.
The usual good stuff from my favourite setter. It’s always fun working out which part of one his clues is the definition, and it’s generally both witty and fair when I find it.
The bottom half was easier for me. I had to google gods to understand if TESSERA should have L or R as the penultimate, unchecked letter, though I now vaguely remember knowing both the god and the tile in my schooldays. Though obvious enough, a TILT was the original meaning of ROUGHSHOD. Favourite was GARLIC PRESS.
I had grantinfreo’s reservation about the skewering. It just about works if you punctuate as ‘forks out: to skewer, books’, but it’s not great.
This was good fun, albeit a little bit harder than usual for Paul. I hadn’t managed to parse 1 dn – thanks, Peter, for explaining that.
Quite hard work, but worth it for the self-referential clue to 29a alone! Couldn’t parse DISTAFF; loved FATHOM, FISHNET STOCKINGS and DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS. Many thanks to Paul and PeterO.
The clue for 12ac is “See 19”; but 19ac is then wrongly paired with 13. Thanks, PeterO, for the parsing of DAKOTA and POSSET. Same as you, my last one in was EMAIL.
Generally agree with above comments. A satisfying steady progress through this.
Did anyone have EAGLE instead of ASSET?
Meant to say ‘Did anyone start off with EAGLE instead of ASSET?’
For some reason this took ages to penetrate at first, unusual for a Paul puzzle. Thought 29 ac probably told of polite conversations with his boss in the past…
A lot of fun but I think I solved too many from the definition and then pieced together the parsing, often with the help of a tea tray (now somewhat dented). Loved “fishnet” especially for the anagram, some great surfaces too.
19,12 reminded me of a motorcycle road trip with 2 friends, up to Scotland, in the early 90’s. Approaching our campsite one noted a bank of fir trees across the river and he commented “Are those Douglas Firs? That’d be a Douglas Fir Bank then…” and one of us then pointed to a smaller stand of new growth with the inevitable “and those are Douglas Fir Banks Junior”… Because of this I think I solved 19,12 in about a nanosecond!
Yep pex@9, but neither prang nor prong looked good for 15/2, so …
A crawl for me today, with resorting to Bradford’s to complete, but an enjoyable challenge nevertheless.
I don’t like the use of spurious words to complete a surface (“in” in 9ac), especially when they send me down blind alleys. I spent far too long trying to fit a brush into a harridan, which I wouldn’t have done had the “in” not been there.
21d Tried to figure out what the GAT in GATHER was for ages, but I couldn’t fathom it.
Thanks Paul and PeterO
Actually, rereading 9a, I am struggling to make sense of the surface, anyway; and why is “say” there?
For me a week of particularly challenging puzzles. All excellent. I put TALKING at 4d, thinking of ‘now you’re talking’ but without confidence. Couldn’t parse 21d. Love it. Nor 20d. Had SPEAR as vassal, as in spear carrier, and didn’t know what to do with the KE. So many good ones. It’s almost as if Araucaria is still with us.
@13, @14 I *think* (and am no expert!) that “in” there is a misdirect which in this instance means “given by” or “found in” rather than “inside” like “founded in common sense”. I was confused by “say” as well but I guess the idea is that the clue actually needs “fish wife” not “fishwife” so some sort of indicator of it being in two parts or split was needed. Though, admittedly, not a very clear one. I very much parsed this after the fact!
Pleasantly Paulian; thanks to setter and blogger.
I can’t see anything wrong with ‘in’ in 9; definition in wordplay seems to me to be par for the course. Lots to like here – I particularly liked the tree repositories, GARLIC PRESS, ARTIST, FATHOM and EDITOR.
I didn’t know the (Collins: archaic) meaning of DISTAFF as a woman.
Thanks to Paul and PeterO. I started off quite slowly with this, with only a couple on the first couple of passes. However, it then began to unpack quite steadily, if somewhat slowly. Got held up at the end in the SW, but then finished with email and Moselle, and finally soffit up the top. I did like steel wool, Douglas Fairbanks and roughshod. Thanks again to Paul and PeterO.
I considered horde but couldn’t see the definition, then put toast instead of roast before giving up. OK, roast is a better answer but toast sort of fits.
Many thanks, PeterO, you probably took less time over this than I did!
Share most people’s feelings about ankle socks needing to be pulled up, and a bit queasy about EDITOR being defined as the setter’s boss. This smacks of the unguessable riddle that Bilbo posed Gollum…”What have I got in my pocket?”
Other than that, there’s my usual gripe about Mr Halpern’s bonkers sentences such as, “Possible scrubber in fishwife, say, occupying seat” or “Getting forks out to skewer books, those unpleasantly dry”. Wot? I get the gag, John, but shouldn’t the sentence make at least a modicum of sense?
Enjoyed re-thinking ROUGHSHOD. Never stopped to think about the real definition of a horse been shod with the nail heads protruding to prevent slipping. You certainly wouldn’t want to be ridden over by that!
Good toughie, all in all, many thanks, Paul.
Nice week, all.
Yes pex@8, I was an EAGLE instead of an ASSET for a while at 11a. Very tough going but lots of fun along the way. My favourites have been mentioned already by drofle@6 and PetHay@18. I remembered 17a POSSET from “Macbeth”, which provided a neat link to 26a HENNA. I loved the DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS story from thezed@11. Thanks to Paul and PeterO, and all contributors.
thezed@11: I don’t think it matters whether one solves a clue by fathoming the wordplay or by seeing the answer and parsing retrospectively (which I couldn’t with 1d.) It just depends what triggers the brain first.
Was the Scottish trip on a Zed? I’ve had a couple over the years.
My thanks to P&P.
Took me a long time to get going properly, but as always Paul’s gridfill was entertaining. It did get a little easier once a few crossers were in place and the bottom half was easier than the top.
Thanks to Paul and PeterO
Thanks to Paul and PeterO. I’m another who got off to a slow start. Like JinA I knew POSSET from Macbeth but did not know SOFFIT and took some time piecing out ROUGHSHOD, DAKOTA, and EMAIL.
Like others, I found this more testing than us usual for Paul, and still highly enjoyable.
9a STEEL WOOL has been mentioned a few times. I had no problem working it out, but I couldn’t see what function either ‘possible’ or ‘say’ performs. I had difficulty parsing a few other clues (e.g. 1d DISTAFF), but all is clear now.
I had to leave 17a POSSET as I couldn’t remember it from having studied Macbeth long ago. (JinA @21 did better than I did on this one.)
I liked 19,12a DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS, with such a long component in the wordplay. It reminded me of EVERGREEN, a component of REVEREND GREEN, in a recent puzzle. There were other favourites, among them FATHOM, GARLIC PRESS and FISHNET STOCKINGS.
Thanks to Paul and PeterO.
While on about redundant misdirects (Dave E, thezed, Robi and yes William) what about ‘getting’ in 3d ?
This looked hard Caroline – nothing on the first pass- and then the anagrams FISHNET STOCKINGS and ANKLE SOCKS and then DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS and POSSET and then,suddenly. it wasn’t. I don’t think my parsing would survive careful scrutiny but nothing terribly new there!
In the end,with the exception of the awful EMAIL, I thought this rather good.
Thanks Paul.
Having failed to finish the puzzle yesterday, I was relieved to at least complete the grid today. But it was a slow grind. That is not a criticism, it’s an excellent crossword, with perhaps only two reservations:
1. the definition of ANKE SOCK
2. the ridiculous surface readings of several of the clues.
Thanks to Paul and to PeterO
Thanks PeterO and Paul,
A bit slow going as others have said, but got there in the end. FISHNET STOCKINGS my favourite clue, but also a special mention for 1d – managing to work an allusion to Daffy Duck into to the puzzle is pure class !
A tough one for me too—took me ages to get started. I agree with GinF @ 3 regarding SPLIT ENDS. It took me a while to get DISTAFF. Annoyingly, I guessed it almost immediately, but couldn’t parse the wordplay because I didn’t think of DAFF[Y], so rejected it until I got the crossers.
The Dakota was built by Douglas aviation, so maybe there was no mistake.
In about 1970, I flew in a DC3 Dakota from La Guiria in Venezuela across to Trinidad. The major surprise was that the seating sloped uphill.
So… I’m going to say again, after just saying this yesterday… even if I am the only one who feels this way, I ***really*** wish we could have less of the whole one-letter-as-abbreviation-for-something-that’s-not-reasonable thing.
Was Anne Hathaway ever referred to as “Anne H”? I get that the clue uses “William S” which is supposed to (and did) let me know it was re:Shakespeare, and it should point to another [first name + last initial] for the answer, but that should only be used if that’s how Anne was known, which she was not.
PLEASE STOP IT
glenn @33
I also saw your comment yesterday. I understand your point of view, but I thought both clues were fair, and I would like to come out in their defence. I will mention only today’s clue in what follows.
Between the surface of the clue and the grid entry it’s all wordplay, and ‘anything goes’ if it can be reasoned and it works. William S (unlike ‘W Shakespeare’) is not meant to be a valid reference to anybody but is meant to be taken as a whole (‘S’ not being a standard abbreviation) and to suggest the playwright. That is for us to see or guess. That non-standard way of writing the name suggests (to me) Anne H as the bride – written in the same way. All comprehensible and rational. Finally we make Anne H into HENNA, which has to be a real word.
Because this a ‘trick’, arguably going beyond the rules and conventions that setters and solvers are assumed to understand, I think an editor should limit its use. One per crossword may be about right.
Hi, Alan (@34):
Thanks for your considered reply! I’m a little calmer now 🙂
I totally understand your explanation (which I had hoped to convey in my post). I really do get it, it just seems to be happening *a lot* lately…
I mean these puzzles are hard enough for an American as it is with all the British slang and geographical references etc. I need some pity! 🙂 🙂 🙂
glenn @35
Thanks for your further comment. I understand what it must be like sometimes when you encounter Britishisms in these crosswords. Not that bad today, though, I imagine, with that well-known American actor Anne Hathaway!
Another great Paul crossword. Stuck only on fathom. All I could see was mayhem which doesn’t quite fit! Favourites fishnet stockings, garlic press and Douglas Fairbanks
May I belatedly join in the discussion (mainly between glenn and Alan B) about HENNA? I thought it was a great clue.
I totally agree with the sentiment about setters using random initials as though they were standard abbreviations. I have several times moaned on here about some setters using “girl” to indicate G, for example.
However that’s not what is going on in this clue. Paul is not suggesting that S is a standard abbreviation for Shakespeare (or H for Hathaway). He is simply referring to Shakespeare as William S in a way that you might refer to anyone, maybe because there is a risk of confusion with someone else with the same first name. (Alan B, to take an example.) This then of course suggests his wife being referred to in the same way: Anne H.
I didn’t think SLAKE the previous day was so successful, mainly because I can’t really envisage a situation where anyone would refer to “S Beauty”.
Lord Jim @38
I agree that yesterday’s example of the device we are discussing was not as successful – only because the material Imogen was working with didn’t give him such realistic or natural combinations as Paul’s (S Beauty vs. William S, and the same contrast with their counterparts). I would just emphasise that in my view view both clues using this device are equally fair.
[I’m posting here probably long after most 15^2ers have moved on permanently from this blog, but for me this is by far the closest I have been (roughly 1 p.m. local time on “the day after”) to “timely” completing the daily Cryptic, in over a week. For each of those puzzles, up until this one by Paul, I never managed to make it here to 15^2, after finally completing the grid, to see what the blogger and commenters had to say about it (and of course, about “synaptically connected” matters) — which, I am sure, is my loss. It has just been a busy time at work and in life generally. Hopefully by next week, I will be back on (or at least closer to) the beam and better able to read and contribute comments here at 15^2 “on the day of”, even if it is a late-ish hour of that day for many other contributors. And who knows, maybe I still have a shot at doing today’s Maskarade puzzle this afternoon and making it over to that blog before day’s end!]
I really enjoyed this one by Paul — some great PDMs (DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS and GARLIC PRESS being chief among them) and the usual assortment of challenging, sometimes envelope-pushing, but always (in my opinion) “fair” clues. Even though, as pointed out by others, Paul is prone to creating the occasional surface that can be convoluted to the point of being nonsensical, for me, at least, the pleasurable payoff of catching on to the clever wordplay almost always leaves me with an emphatic “thumbs up” opinion of the clue as a whole. Oh, and count me among those who thought HENNA was great! In addition to this fine puzzle, I greatly enjoyed reading through the comments from the blogger and the other contributors, above. Even a week away from such an excellent group (and this excellent website that allows us all to come together) has been too long a time!
Many thanks to Paul and PeterO and the other commenters.