Guardian Cryptic 27,660 by Paul

by

Don’t try to tackle this one before you’ve had a strong cup of coffee.

I made that mistake and struggled.  I have managed to complete the puzzle, but still have a couple of queries.

For 6d, why is the definition “notorious wolf”?  I am no fan of modern music, and Kanye West in particular, so would welcome clarification.

And at 19ac, I’m not aware of any situation in which “branding” should indicate” insertion.

Otherwise, a fun solve with some pleasing “aha” moments, the most satisfying of which being CHINESE TAKEAWAY and TURGID.

Thanks, Paul.

Across
9 NECTARINE Fruit: a few squashes shattered crate (9)
NINE (“a few”) squashes *(crate)
10 ABASH A social shame (5)
A BASH (party, so “social”)
11   See 22
12 CRYOGEN Keen to get type of melon in freezer (7)
CRY (“keen”) to get OGEN (“a type of melon”)

A new one for me, an Ogen melon is apparently a small green melon.
13 TRIP Dance tour (4)
Double definition
14 STEELWORKS Factory where fishwife feeds birds (10)
EEL (“fish) + W (wife) feeds STORKS (“birds”)
16 DOG SLED Somewhat head over heels, supermodels go doolally for a slipper (3,4)
Hidden backwards in [somehwat head over heels] “supermoDELS GO Doolally”
17 CESSPIT Filthy wet hole turns dry when raked back (7)
<=TIPS SEC (“turns dry” when raked back)
19 ASTERISKED Marked danger branding a horse (10)
RISK (“danger”) branding A STEED (“horse”)

Can’t see why “branding” should indicate that RISK be put inside STEED?
22, 11 BANK MANAGER  23 7, would you say? (4,7)
A homophone of LONER RANGER (the answers to 23dn and 7dn) is LOAN ARRANGER, which is what a BANK MANAGER may be.
24 TIRADES Exchanges full of invective, primarily? (7)
TRADES (“exchanges”) full of I(nvective) [primarily] and &lit.
25 CROATIA Recollection of island monster gripping a nation (7)
<= AIT ORC (recollection of “island monster”) gripping A
26 OUIJA Board getting the nod in Strasbourg — and further east? (5)
OUI (French for yes i.e. “getting the nod in Strasbourg”) + JA (German for yes i.e. “getting the nod further east”)
27 ESOTERICA I create when intoxicated, penning very obscure stuff (9)
*(i create) penning SO (“very”)
Down
1 ANIMATED CARTOON Entertainment drawn from a game a lot, performance of redcoat welcomed (8,7)
A NIM (“a game”) + A TON (“a lot”) welcoming *(redcoat)

Nim is a traditional game, possibly Chinese in origin, in which two players alternate in drawing counters, pennies, or the like, from a set of 12 arranged in three rows of 3, 4, and 5 counters, respectively, the object being to draw the last counter, or, sometimes, to avoid drawing it.
2 SCENTING Sensing money, belt out to secure it (8)
SING (“belt out”) to secure CENT (“money”)
3 WAUGH English novelist fighting to be heard? (5)
Homophone of WAR (“fighting” to be heard)
4 MIGRATED Major route in shreds, moved away (8)
M1 (“major route”) + GRATED (“in shreds”)
5 RESCUE Get out snooker equipment shortly, then what’s on it? (6)
RES(t) (“snooker equipment”, shortly) + CUE (“what’s on it” i.e. what you put on a rest in snooker)
6 KANYE WEST Notorious wolf introduced to flock, any ewes terrified! (5,4)
Hidden in [introduced to] “flocK ANY EWES Terrified”

I have no idea why Kanye West would be clued as “notorious woif”, unless it has something to do with him “chasing the ladies”, but from what little I know of him, he is no more a wolf in that sense than any other rapper.
7 RANGER Basically bitter wind up for worker outdoors (6)
[basically] (bitte)R (i.e. the base or bottom of “bitter”) + ANGER (“wind up”)
8 CHINESE TAKEAWAY Spirit of the Far East seen ordering — this? (7,8)
CHI (“spirit of the far east”) + *(seen) + TAKE AWAY (“-“, i.e. the mathematical symbol for subtraction)
15 FLORIDIAN Statesman‘s charity rolling in money once (9)
<=AID (“charity”, rolling) in FLORIN (“money, once”)
17 COERCION Force party to bind over leaders in criminal investigation (8)
CON(servative “party”) to bind O’ER (“over”) + [leads in] C(riminal) I(nvestigation), so C(O’ER C I)ON
18 PLANTAIN Colonist possibly into homely tropical food (8)
ANT (“colonist possibly”) into PLAIN (“homely”)
20 TURGID Windy US soldier dropping trousers (6)
TURD (“dropping”) trousers G.I. (“US soldier”)
21 SUSSEX South American relations divided county (6)
S (south) + US (“American”) + SEX (“relations”)
23 LONER Independent type left a note in the past (5)
L (left) + ONER (£1 note, so “a note from the past”)

*anagram

78 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,660 by Paul”

  1. As I really liked this puzzle I’ll take Paul’s word for it on the rapper as the embed stood out like…

    As i remember I was still on tea when I did this-quite a challenge with a Paul signature on TURGID

    Thanks Paul and loonpick

  2. Thank you Loonapick and Paul. I had “ordering” in 8d as doing double duty as the anagrind of “seen” and a synonym of “takeaway” but your parsing is obviously correct. Kanye West has been (tenuously and tongue in cheek) linked to the recent resurgence of Wolverhampton Wanderers but I’m not sure that’s the connection,

  3. Thanks Paul, loonapick

    I thought the two hiddens were great, and felt the same as copmus@1 about the notorious wolf – dunno, but happy to go with it.  As for the rest, Paul at his best – no slacking allowed.

  5. I finished this in one session, but it was a crawl – very little jumped out. Still, an enjoyable challenge.

     

    Thanks Paul and loonapick

  7. didn’t have a problem finishing this, but parsing took a bit of headscratching. The KANYE WEST embed is a gimme but I can’t explain it and frankly I can’t be parsed to Google it…I’ll wait a few hours until a hip-hop fan has crawled out of bed.

    Thanks to S&B

  8. Thanks both. Loonapick, viewing your blog on an iPad, the entries disappear at the right hand side, for example the ARRANGER bit of LOAN ARRANGER is missing

  14. Managed to finish a Paul, which is quite rare for me nowadays. Like others, I thought TURGID was tremendous, and also like BANK MANAGER and CHINESE TAKEAWAY. Many thanks to P & l.

  15. Hmm fairly chewy with several unparsed, the wolf among them, tho it was FOI, at which stage it was looking more than chewy but a few regulars like esoterica and loner helped. Dnk the melon, thought tips=turns was ?-able, didn’t twig loan arranger (pretty cute), dnk ait=island or Nim the game, and didn’t parse turgid, vaguely thinking dropping trousers is what you do before…etc. Oui + ja was neat too. Tried to fit sex in the county, so will now try to find what’s divided about Sussex (some blog text is off-screen; never happened before).

    Enjoyed it all, including the tilts and d’ohs. Thanks Paul and Loonapick.

  16. My parsing for the Chinese takeaway was much simpler: Chambers gives “convey away secretly” as one meaning of the verb spirit. …and also wrong, as it doesn’t account for “seen ordering”. Maybe I’m just a purist who can’t equate an en-dash with a minus sign?

  19. Omitted 8d from my dnp(arse) list; like Blaise@16 I thought Far East (Chinese) spirit (take away), thaddeldoo, biff, and didn’t go back.

  20. I have just powered up my grown-up computer and can see all the blog entries. So there seems to be a word-wrapping problem when viewed on tablets, for some reason. Perhaps Gaufrid knows why?

  23. BaltiBaro@21  If you have ever watched the Boat Race you will have heard mention of the Chiswick Eyot, an island in the Thames; alternative spelling seems to be “ait”

     

     

  24. Loonapick@11
    Yes, apologies, as others have stated e.g. Shirl @8, the ends of many of your longer entries have been truncated on iPads and so cannot be read.

    Despite finding this harder than usual, it was enjoyable. Many thanks Paul and Loonapick.

  25. Larry@24: truncated on Android tablets as well. Just saying.

    Lots of cleverness here, but hyphen (or em dash) is not the same as a minus sign.

    And just for the record, WAUGH and WAR are only synonyms for the rhotically challenged. I’ll get my coat.

  26. To all those affected, apologies for the lost text on mobile devices. I have determined the cause of the lack of word wrapping and have rectified it (I hope). I don’t have a mobile device in order to check so perhaps someone can confirm that the post is now displaying correctly.

  28. Yes now displaying correctly, thanks.
    I think the notorious wolf refers to him being a wolves supporter in the same way as you could describe Elton John as a notorious hornet.

  29. Some fun along the way but a DNF as a couple weren’t completed. I didn’t see 6d KANYE WEST which I now can’t believe I missed. I also didn’t solve 20d TURGID.

    I will be interested in any further elucidation on why Kanye West is defined as a “notorious wolf”.

    Thanks for the blog and the parsing, loonapick, and to other commenters. I still don’t understand why NINE means “few” in 9a NECTARINE.

    Also thanks also to Paul, who defeated me on this occasion.

  31. Thank you Paul and loonapick.

    Doubled the strength of my mid-morning coffee half way through this, but still failed to fully parse ANIMATED CARTOON and CHINESE TAKEAWAY…

    I interpreted ‘branding’ as marking the horse’s coat in 19a.

    Loved the clue for the BANK MANAGER!

  32. Phew that was tough. Maybe following the cricket in tandem didn’t help but my brain hurts.

    Like others didn’t know AIT or the rapper reference. My daughter who was a fan until his bizarre political conversion (or not) suggested it’s his ladies man rep – wasn’t he shacked up with that celeb woman with the enormous arse?

    Anyway thanks to Paul for the diversion and the usual dose of toilet humour and to Loona for the helpful if disappearing blog.

  33. Thanks to Paul and loonapick.

    Hands up, got almost nowhere with this and slowly. Resorted to reveals just to get on with the rest of the day and managed to forgive myself for the most part but not for STEELWORKS which stood out for me. But the balance of thanks is with loonapick for several parsings, mostly those mentioned by grantinfreo above.

    Ah well, been travelling (Switzerland as you ask) and hope to be a bit sharper after a while at home.

  34. Thank you for the melon, loonapick: I’ll take your various words on it about Mr West. Not prepared to click the link to listen to something – hear more than enough of that stuff at the gym.

  35. 19a. For what it is worth my edition of Chambers has as one of its definitions of “brand”:

    A mark burned into anything with a hot iron.

  36. Thanks Paul; I found this very tough with no entries on the first pass. Once I had DOG SLED and saw the redcoat, I thought we might be in for an early Christmas theme.

    I loved the LONER RANGER; strangely enough, I had guessed BANK MANAGER before I got the former. I also liked the OUIJA board.

    Thanks loonapick for some of the parsings – this one looks a better minus sign to me. Like JinA @29 I would question nine meaning a few. If I had nine pints, I would consider that a lot!

  37. Wow! That was not a jaunt. Hardly any gives.Missed esoterica, coercion and cesspit. All excellent though. Cryogen and ouija my favourites. Just read the whole of KW’s Wolves lyric. The last verse is enough to render anyone notorious. It’s rapping at its most raw and potentially offensive. I kind of like it.

  39. Thanks Paul and loonapick.  Agree with the general view that this a good puzzle with a couple of questionable bits.

    Re ASTERISKED I find it helps to think of branding as stamping on: the word RISK is ‘stamped onto’ A STEED.  Not one of my favourites.

    I’m another fan of the LONER RANGER/BANK MANAGER combo and I did like STEELWORKS.

  40. Had the same problems as everyone else with the notorious wolf and the branding of the steed: didn’t get the WAUGH homophone even though it works in my accent, and finally had to reveal LONER before I found the bank manager. On the other hand, the Thames around here is full of eyots and aits so that was no trouble. I found this hard going and DNF.

  41. After about half an hour I had managed to get 26a and 12a.

    An hour or so later I had got a total of about half a dozen solutions.

    Eventually it came together; one or two brilliant clues which could only ever be Paul (17a and 20d in particular). Didn’t manage to parse 17d (about which I’m kicking myself) or 8d (which was simply Paul being brilliant again).

    Tough, very tough, but good fun and rewarding to stick with.

  42. Thanks to Paul and loonapick. No surprises here, I found this as tough as many others with very little on first few passes. At one point I nearly gave up with less than half completed, because I felt I was getting nowhere. However stuck with it and nearly got there. A DNF because like JinA@28 I missed 6 down even though it seems obvious now. Still pleased with what I did and I liked Croatia, steelworks and the trademark Paul turgid. Thanks again to Paul and loonapick.

  43. Thanks, Paul. Thanks, Loonapick. A wonderful offering, but it’s taken me so long that l’m too tired to do the housework that l planned. Ho hum!

  44. Baltibaro @21 — an ait is a small island found in rivers and crossword puzzles.  I’ve never seen the word anywhere else, though it’s a crossword standby.  When I saw it here I wondered where ait had been all this time?  That must be where I left my etui.

  45. Thanks to Paul and loonapick. Very tough going for me. I knew “ait”and “Nim” from previous puzzles but not OGEN and elsewhere relied a lot on guesswork so needed lots of help with the parsing.

  46. So relieved it wasn’t just me. Very tough indeed. I enjoyed most of it very much but some of the toughness didn’t feel earned. As others have pointed out, nine isn’t necessarily a few. That just left me cross. And seemed like a missed opportunity since the clue was itself 9.

  47. Re ‘branding’ – a little obscure perhaps but cleverly linked to the horsey element of the clue. I saw it being more visual i.e AHO BRAND RSE.

    Not sure that makes any sense now it’s written down (need a horse picture with a brand on it) but offered up anyway!

  48. Thanks Paul and loonapick, another good ‘un today. Must admit, I thought Paul had slipped up in not clueing ‘takeaway’ in 8d. Should have known better. Failed to parse ‘coercion’ at 17d. Saw the ‘con’ part, but took the first ‘o’ instead of the last, leaving ‘ero’ instead of ‘oer’. Silly me. Just happy to complete it (eventually.)

    Robi @36: If I’d had nine pints, and someone asked how much I’d drunk, I’d probably say (shay?) ‘I’ve had a few’!

     

  50. Wow! A toughie!! We loved TURGID and OUIJA (won’t forget how to spell that ever again!!) Agree 6D is difficult to parse if you don’t know Yeezy (had trouble convincing the OH of that one!!!) but the surface is great. We struggled to parse CROATIA re AIT V eyot. Nonetheless w loved it! Thanks Paul and Loonapick.

  51. PHEW that took a FEW attempts – possibly nine.
    Thank you Paul and Loonapick.

    I’m not sure if the Wolverhampton Wanderers connection has been
    given the green light yet, or is it still a mystery?

    I see from the comments that operating systems are still
    giving, not only me, grief.

    NIM has won me a great deal of beer over the years. I first came across it in a rather compelling film – Last Year in Marianbad.
    (1-3-5-7 version,trying to avoid the last match/card)
    There’s some very interesting sums behind it.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82l8FtL6Og4

  52. In the game of NIM in the clip the guy facing us starts well and could have won,
    but makes one fatal error.

  53. Woohoo that took a few return visits through the day. A few unparsed, like others – thank you for un(loona)picking particularly 8 and 17 down. I had all the bits of asterisked and floridian early on but did not put either together until far too late. On getting the “l” crosser I immediately thought “florin” but wanted to put most of it at the end of the word and forgot the statesman = American chestnut.

    David Ellison @23 – presumably if a crew sinks then the Chiswick Eyot beat the Oxford or Cambridge Eight? (I’ll get my coat). Seeing cesspit there reminds me of a local company which empties them – their lorry has the branding “suck-cess”, a rare example of company pun names escaping their natural homes of hairdressers and chippies.

    Lots of fun but damned hard work!

  55. Great fun from Paul today.  I enjoyed WAUGH and the LONER-RANGER, and I delighted in the wordplay (not just the use of TURD but also the brilliant misdirection of “dropping trousers”) in TURGID, which was CotD for me.  Count me among those who solved CHINESE TAKEAWAY as described by Blaise @16 and grantinfreo @19.  Had I seen the correct parsing as described by loonapick, this surely would have been one of my top favorites as well.

    I enjoyed the many comments above regarding AIT — like Valentine @44, I thought of ETUI from yesterday’s puzzle, as these two words are instantly familiar to veteran solvers of American-style crosswords, even though you would never hear them in ordinary conversation.  “My amah [oriental nurse] took a proa [Indonesian canoe] to an ait, where an anoa [Celebes ox] ate my etui.”

    I am as mystified by the “notorious wolf” as everyone else.  thezed @53: “suck-cess” – haha!

    Many thanks to Paul and loonapick and the other commenters.

  56. Hardest puzzle for ages. Took several sittings-and a pint of homebrew to complete! After the first two passes I only had MIGRATED and TRIP. TURGID- which I still don’t fully understand- and ESOTERICA followed. Several sittings later I finally finished with LONGER and RANGER being the last two. I had guessed BANK MANAGER earlier. I got KANYE WEST without spotting it was a hidden word until having entered the answer. I don’t know where NOTORIOUS comes in. Perhaps Paul could tell us.
    Thanks Paul

  58. NOTORIOUS May have something to do with The notorious B.I.G with whom he worked. He was also part of the tribute to BIG who was murdered. How this fits in with the clue I don’t know.

  59. Thanks loonapick and PAUL.
    Like JinA @29,I wondered at few = nine. (Why not 7,23 or 47?).
    Here, Paul walks on water. He is always in form.

  60. ‘A square quashes’ would be a vast improvement,though it’d do nothing to improve the terrible surface…

  61. Also, in the US, we order a “take-out”…dunno about UK.
    Take-away,to me means, a lesson or a message…I’m sure I will be enlightened .

  62. The homophone of {23,7} reminded me of an old joke:

    A man of foreign origin with poor English skills enters a bank, seeking a loan.  The receptionist tells him, “I’m sorry, but the Loan Arranger is not available right now”.

    So the man replies, “Well, is-a Tonto available?”

  63. Kanye West
    In the trailer to the Wolf of Wall Street the cover song used to introduce the notorious wolf Jordan Belfort was Black Skinhead by Kanye West, this was not used in the actual film.
    Notorious Wolf Introduced by Kanye West
    Does this fit the clue?

  64. BaltiBaro@21: orc predates Tolkien as a monster.
    All been said already, but thanks for the parsing of TAKEAWAY loonapick, and chapeau Paul.

  65. I didn’t find this as hard as some quite recent puzzles which can probably be translated as “I finished it”. I couldn’t parse 6d where experience of Paul’s style suggests that “wolf” is a false singular derived from “Wolves” (Wolverhampton Wanderers) which is either witty – my view – or perverse. I liked the clueing of 20d but not the definition. Windy as in long-winded, overblown = bombastic and so does turgid but, being picky, I don’t think that that makes turgid as in slow-moving = windy.
    Thanks to Paul for the wit and to loonapick for the parsing and comments.

  66. Me too – thought Tramp’s was harder (and less enjoyable) yesterday than this, even though I struggled to parse a few (AIT is a new one on me). LOI, with a little electronic help, was Turgid.

  67. I finished this. Not much fun though.

    I feel that the difficulty of rather too many clues was down to poor rather than clever cluing. Needed an editor in my opinion.

  68. I usually love Paul’s crosswords but didn’t enjoy this at all. Too many clues far too contorted. ‘basically bitter’ for the ‘r’ in 7d is just one example. ‘ant’ as a ‘colonist possibly’ is another. I think the first time I just couldn’t finish it.

  70. Re-visiting before embarking on today’s offering, it occurs to me that “few” could be nine in the sense that  “I’ve had a few” could equate to “he’s had one over the eight” and so “nine”.  (We’re talking alcoholic drinks here.)  Paul’s general angle of wit would support this I think.

  71. Great puzzle. Re the TAKEAWAY: in my book, the minus sign is a hyphen, not a dash, but the sentence demanded a dash. I wonder if any of us would have noticed if Paul had used a hyphen? Maybe he did and a keen subeditor ‘corrected’ it to a dash.

  73. I know we’re late to the party, but we only got 3 the first evening. Eventually got most of it, but stuck in the SW corner as we had SLOVENIAN at 15d. It nearly all works – S from the end of statesman’s, LOVE as charity, rolling in gives NI, but we couldn’t see how AN was money once.

  74. Thanks Paul and Loonapick. Almost a total fail for me. As a non-rhotic speaker I got WAUGH and that was my lot.
    Two themes in the comments come together on the north side of Kew Bridge, where, opposite Brentford Ait, you’ll find the Fuller’s pub One Over The Ait.

  75. Even later… Thank you loona for the warning which we noticed yesterday when looking for the Tramp blog so gave it a miss. Seeing Enigmatist today however, we decided to have a go at this instead.

    We did enjoy most of this and appreciated the brilliant clues already mentioned despite a few ‘reveals’. I agree with HoagyM @ 66 re Tramp.

    Thanks to Alphalpha @ 70 for the NINE offering which is superb if Paul meant it that way.

  77. Thanks Paul and loonapick
    Unfortunately I don’t have the time to do the Guardian puzzles daily but occasionally able to get to the odd one. This one attracted my attention when I saw the blog headlines and printed it out at the time. Only got to it recently and found that it was every bit as hard as the warning indicated !!
    Enjoyed it a lot and was able to eventually fill the grid – missed the parsing of 1d (not getting passed the REDCOAT anagram), didn’t spot the O’ER bit of 17d and needed to come here to understand why BANK MANAGER (which was my last in) was correct – it immediately became my favourite clue !
    This was my first recent Guardian puzzle – have been enjoying a number of the earlier ones from 2003 (was very pleased to see that they could still be accessed) – and some of the earlier setters who are no longer with us, such as Bunthorne, Araucaria, etc.

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