Guardian 27,731/ Picaroon

66 comments on “Guardian 27,731/ Picaroon”

1. Fortunate as ever Eileen!  🙂

   My only slight grump with this one was having to solve linked clues – but that was only minor, I both spotted and liked the theme

   Thanks to Picaroon for his part in today’s great spread of nationally-published cryptic crosswords – I’m a very happy solver – and to the afore-mentioned fortunate one for the blog

    

2. Thanks Picaroon and Eileen

   A similar experience. I had nothing until I worked out the anagram for 25,21d, but the GARDEN gave an entry 16a and hence 9a, a good start.

   IGNESCENTS was my favourite sort of clue – one that I could build up to produce a word I had never heard of. EN REGLE was similar. I wondered if there should have been a French indication, but I did find it in Chambers.

   Other favourites were LORIS and BABYLON.

   Is ORDER the same as “series”?

3. Didn’t know 13a, 23a, nor the writer or singer, but guessed them from the wordplay. Solved 9a after 16a. Yet another superb puzzle from Picaroon.

4. NNI @3

   I think GRASS for “singer” refers to an informer.

5. Thanks both. I was going to make a connection between the theme and 24,4 (lady garden?) but I decided against it

6. Thanks, Eileen and Picaroon.

    

   Isn’t it rare for Picaroon to have a theme? It took quite a while for it to emerge as I struggled with the anagram.

   I liked 22a BABYLON for its deception- I was checking lists for the likes of Milton Keynes and Glenrothes.

   (5d should be STATES, not SIATES, I think)

7. Hi David Ellison @6 – or even STATE, I think. 😉  [muffin sometimes cites the ‘law’ that states that every comment pointing out a typo should contain a typo.]

8. Eileen @7

   It’s rather more “will” than “should” 🙂

9. Afraid my classical knowledge left me wanting for Devas for Chester in 5d, but did manage the Latin insertion in 14d…

10. Picaroon is one of my favourite setters, but, I’m afraid, I did not enjoy this puzzle very much.

11. Hi Ronald @ 9 – just for the record, the Roman town is DEVA:  the wordplay requires DEVA’S. I left the apostrophe out in the blog but now I think I’ll replace it, to make it clearer.

12. Its DEVA something for Chester. I thought there may be a vocalist named GRASS but the informer is much better

    What a great puzzle -must be a pleasure to blog

    Thanks Eileen and JB

13. Hi copmus @12 – it’s DEVA Victrix, as in the link in the blog [see here, too].

    I didn’t think to say GRASS = singer =  informer – my apologies to NNI @3.

    Picaroon’s puzzles are always a pleasure to blog. 😉

14. Very much enjoyed this. The theme clue anagram was rightly tricky and i got it when i solved Babylon. Excellent crossword

15. Very good indeed. I’m somewhat with crypticsue @1 regarding linked clues, but it’s a matter of taste and anyway wasn’t a problem with this puzzle. I had POTPOURRI and AROSE, and the R in 21d, which led me to GARDEN and hence the rest of the long answer. I thought ‘POT’ was a clumsy synonym for 21d (potting being one part of gardening) until the blog clarified it. DEVA and IGNESCENTS were new to me but fairly clued.
    Thanks Picaroon and Eileen.

16. Lovely puzzle. Lovely blog. Lovely comments. Did anyone, like me, get stuck in the NE corner, with just the central “O” in the garden adornment, and waste a good long time trying to justify gnOme as the answer?

17. In spite of the theme anagram falling relatively quickly (and I have no idea how 15 letters rearrange themselves in my head in this fashion) I was slow with the NE and bits of the SW. I thought the difficult words (ignescents, en regle) were immaculately clued as Eileen commented, and so their inclusion was perfectly fair. I was thrown off by many of the curveballs Picaroon delightfully pitched here, only to come back and remind myself about the garden theme which helped with border, arose, weed etc.

    I also paused over “grass” having quickly thought of the writer (inspired by the theme subconsciously I think) and getting the stalk connection. I then didn’t write it in at first because I could not think of a vocalist to fit. I found a tea tray instead a minute or two later.

    Clever, smooth and challenging – a treat of a puzzle today – thank you Picaroon, and Eileen for the Deva link which was the one bit which eluded me.

18. Blaise @16

    GNOME was my first thought too, but I couldn’t make it work…

19. Bit of a tough slog for me today and I still had to come here for enlightenment. Than you, Eileen. I find PLOT = BORDER a bit of a stretch and do people in Brazil really do what they are supposed to do in 24,4? Well, as they say, you learn something new everyday

20. This was difficult! I failed to solve BAPS (I have heard of that food, but it is not really on my radar), and I could not parse Deva’s in 5d – it sounded more Indian to me than Roman.

    Thank you Picaroon and blogger

21. I thought this was going to be a DNF today as it took me a while to get on Picaroons wavelength, but the clueing was superb and resulted in a solve that was much more satisfying than if I’d completed it quicker.

    Thanks to Picaroon and Eileen.

22. Eileen and muffin @ 7 and 8: Isn’t that Sid’s Law?

23. Thanks to Eileen and Picaroon

    In accordance with tradition might I point out a missing A in the parsing of 14 dawn?

    Top puzzle, great blog

24. Dansar @ 23 – Sid’s Law strikes again.

     

25. Hi again David Ellison @22 – something like that, I think. Thanks for that. 😉  I know it’s often in operation here! And many thanks for your smile, too, Dansar @23. As Julie in Australia sometimes says, it’s particularly bad when teachers offend, considering how much time we’ve spent exhorting students to check their work.

26. Thanks Picaroon for a good but tough challenge. Despite getting the theme early on, I struggled with LANDSCAPE, very deceptive clue.

    Thanks Eileen; I didn’t know IGNESCENTS although it was fairly clued (once the small = S was ignored.) For 23D, I’m used to ‘essentially’ meaning the central letters, rather than being a container. And, I looked at the beginning for an anagram of pants suit in 19.

27. Brilliant. I had to look up EN REGLE, though.

28. David Ellison @22

    I like “Sid’s Law” – is it &lit?

29. Likewise it took me until the very amusing Brazilian clue before anything went in, then 25,21 and I thought “I’m away” but instead I ground to a halt and then slowly got a few more before 16a led to LANDSCAPE and the rest followed – albeit with several that I needed Eileen’s blog to see the parsing – 11,14,21a and 6,21d all eluded me. I got the CAT and A COMB but was trying to make the “in a” work as part of the wordplay and feel “for a” would have been fairer.
    This is a minor quibble over a superb puzzle and excellent blog – thanks to Picaroon and Eileen.

30. Uncle Yap: a Brazilian in this context is short for a treatment called Brazilian wax, a depilatory. And yes, the name refers to the fact that they were popularized in Brazil (to make it possible to wear a string bikini on Ipanema without showing too much embarrassment).

    This puzzle was hard for me, for reasons I can’t really articulate. The only thing I didn’t know was DEVA for Chester, but it could hardly be anything else.

    [In other news, today’s high temperature in Chicago is expected to be lower than those experienced in most parts of Greenland. I will be staying home and doing crosswords.]

31. Thanks to Picaroon and Eileen. I found this a very tough challenge today and did at one point think it was going to be a DNF. However, stuck with it and got there in the end, and even spotted the theme. It was the bottom half of the puzzle, particularly the SE, that held me up. Last three were baps, grass and en regle (new to me). I loved Babylon (even though one of the last in), particularly for the misdirection which set me thinking about garden cities in th UK. I also liked catacomb and I have to say devastates (guess where I live?). Thanks again to Picaroon and Eileen.

32. [mrpenney @30

    I’ve just been reading about your “polar vortex”. You have my sympathy and best wishes.]

33. mrpenney @30 – We think it’s cold here [and I’ve got to go out in a minute!] – but it’s nothing like what you have, of course. Stay warm and safe.

34. After a difficult few weeks with an enforced absence from crossword land it was a delight to come back to a Picaroon puzzle.  I enjoyed it very much and thought that Eileen hit the nail on the head with her description of it as “challenging and absorbing”.

    Many thanks to Picaroon & Eileen & happy new year to all.

     

35. Yes, another very high class puzzle from Picaroon. A steady solve, with the bottom half giving way first, leaving CAPABILITY BROWN to open the rest up. NEW YEAR was last in. Too many favourites to list…

    Thanks to Picaroon and Eileen

36. Thanks to Picaroon and Eileen. I’m another who had a very slow start and struggled with EN REGLE, IGNESCENTS, and Deva.

37. It has mostly been said so many thanks to Picaroon and Eileen.

    For me however, a DNF as I could not equate Lord with Master or the definition of BORDER as a plot.  Anyone else have similar failings!!

38. S Panza @37

    I was happy with BORDER=”plot”, as in “herbaceous border” for example, a  plot for growing herbaceous plants. I did query ORDER=”series”, but no-one has clarified that for me.

39. Muffin @38 you are correct how does order = series?  After your intervention I can just about see plot as a definition of BORDER but I still feel it is a bit of a stretch. Anyway thanks for coming back to me.  I forgot to mention and now do so somewhat sheepishly that PUBIC HAIR was my FOI

40. Hi S Panza and muffin

    Chambers has ‘master’ as the first definition of ‘lord’ and Collins ‘ lord: a  person who has power or authority over others, such as a monarch or master’.

    Latin dominus translates as both lord and master – in fact, think of the expression ‘lord and master’.

    See this online thesaurus entry for ‘series’

41. Thanks Eileen. I wasn’t seeing “order” as a noun.

42. ….in this context, that is.

43. Huzzah!!  Now *THAT* was a theme to savor!  Great fun from start to finish — the sort of puzzle you wish could have an “annex”!  I had this song going though my head as I solved it.  In my search for clues that were on-theme, I had the same thought about “lady garden” mentioned by Shirl @5 — that metaphor is actually used (visually, using shrubs) to advertise razors for women on TV here in the US — but like Shirl, I’m not going to make that connection 😉 .  I  also suspected — not that I knew about it beforehand, but Wikipedia does — that PALATINATE might also possibly be part of the theme.  Lots of great clues today, but I think my co-favorites were THE SECRET GARDEN (because I enjoy a long nag a ram) and BASILICA (clever wordplay).  All this, and a lovely LORIS pic besides!

    [mrpenney @30, sending warm thoughts to you and your fellow Chicagoans (and denizens of that entire region of the country)!  The comparisons I have been reading have been to Antarctica, not Greenland.  And meanwhile, folks here in Maryland are all in a tizzy because the temps will be in the single (but still positive!) digits tomorrow!]

    Many thanks to Picaroon and Eileen and the other commenters.

44. David Ellison @22 (not to mention Eileen @7). According to an article in wikipedia, Sid’s got no say in it: the pucker term to use is Muphry’s Law. Among the alternative names I quite like “Hartman’s law of prescriptivist retaliation” which goes:”Any article or statement about correct grammar, punctuation, or spelling is bound to contain at least one eror [sic].”

45. Many thanks, DaveMc for the Hortus Palatinus – I knew about the Elector Frederick and Elizabeth Stuart from A Level History [and therefore didn’t look up the Palatinate] but that’s a very interesting extra bit of knowledge.

    And thank you, too, Blaise!

46. Thank’s for this, Blaise @ 44. I hadn’t met him/her before, so interesting reading.

47. Thanks, Blaise @44. I think “Sid’s Law” is better, though!

48. Blaise @44

    Is “pucker” your obligatory typo? I’d put a smiley face but I don’t know how to do them.

49. Thanks for the details Eileen.  Picaroon is always a class act and I would have been most surprised if we had uncovered an untenable definition.  Lord and Master is so obvious but nevertheless I just did not see it when I was solving, so ASTERS was unsolved.  Similarly plot for BORDER seemed natural when muffin wrote about an herbaceous border but after staring at it for some time I gave up.  Still if we got them all correct all of the time, I fancy we would get bored and move on to another pastime, and I like this one just fine!

50. S Panza – thanks for that.

    ‘ Picaroon is always a class act and I would have been most surprised if we had uncovered an untenable definition.’ Absolutely! It’s so reassuring to feel we can totally rely on the integrity of the cluing – as I always know I can with Picaroon.

    Blaise @44 – see here:

    http://www.fifteensquared.net/2009/06/19/emoticons/  😉 😉

51. An excellent crossword that did not yield too quickly – just how I like it too. I started it late and was tired when I filled in my last two answers, BABYLON and BAPS, so thanks for the parsing of those, Eileen. IGNESCENTS was new to me, but perfectly clued like everything else.
    Thanks to Picaroon and Eileen.

52. Thank you to Picaroon and Eileen – a DNF for me unfortunately.  A special thank you to Blaise@44 and so many others who contribute to this blog and make solving (or in my case, more often simply attempting to solve) these puzzles even more enjoyable.

53. Blaise@44 and Dansar@48
    I think the pukka spelling is pukka.
    Thanks to Picaroon and Eileen and everyone else.
    As usual muffin summed up my experience and opinion of this puzzle. Our positions are unlikely to be reversed as long as he posts more than 12 hours before I begin to try to solve.

54. Blaise@44
    I think that the pukka spelling is pukka.
    As is often the case muffin@2 had the same experience of solving and opinion of the puzzle as me. His posts will appear before mine as long as he posts them more than 12 hours before I start to try to solve.
    Thanks to Picaroon and Eileen.

55. DNF for me. Didn’t solve 5d and I live in Chester and regularly visit the Deva Stadium, home of Chester FC.

56. Thank you Picaroon for a challenging puzzle, only just finished,  and Eileen for a most helpful blog.

    Also, thank you to DaveMc @43 for reminding me of the PALATINATE Garden in the grounds of Heidelberg Castle – I visited the remains of it when my school in England made a post-war visit to our sister school in that town in 1958.

57. Phew. That was a workout, only just finished. At first all I had was Eden. Came back to it this morning expecting it all to fall into place, but it was a long slog even when I saw the theme. Thanks Picaroon for keeping the brain cells active. Thanks Eileen too

58. I was stimulated by this to look the Elisabeth-von-Thadden-Schule up.  Elisabeth-von-Thadden founded the school in 1927 and was beheaded in 1944 since she had sheltered Jewish pupils and was a member of the Solf-Kreis (the Solf Circle, an informal gathering of German intellectuals involved in the resistance against Nazi Germany).  Most members were arrested and executed after attending a tea party hosted by her in Berlin on September 10, 1943 at the house of Frau Solf. The group’s downfall also ultimately led to the demise of the Abwehr in February 1944, the  chief of which, Wilhelm Canaris, secretly opposed and worked against the wishes of Hitler.

    I wish Europe could remain united…

59. Busy week – so puzzles solved out of order (haven’t even seen Friday’s or today’s Prize yet!) so pure good luck that this was solved with my Saturday morning’s coffee.
    And what a humdinger! Both demanding, and deserving of, attention. Just how I like them. Can one say of a crossword that it’s whole is greater than it’s parts? This was delightful all ways round.
    Many thanks to Picaroon and Eileen.

60. [cookie – please don’t worry; Britain leaving the EU doesn’t necessarily mean a less united Europe. After all, whilst Churchill strongly advocated for a European union, he didn’t want the UK to be a part. He’d had enough of our youth being sacrificed in their millions in two world wars. By leaving, we will not have to help fund a German-controlled European army ready to cement their third attempt at European domination in a century.]

61. […..and I voted to remain (in both referenda – ’75 and ’16) though wonder now if I chose wisely since I really echo Frank Field’s views. In my town rents have almost doubled in a handful of years – we have septuagenarian women sleeping rough in this weather (they eschew shelters being afeared thereof). According to Metropolitan Police and DWP statistics true population actually exceeds 80 millions….and something needs to be done. Just a shame EU so dogmatic or the referendum might never have been required.]

62. Me@53 and 54
    53 took so long to come up that I thought it wasn’t going to so tried again.

63. William FP@ 59 , 60, 61. If you spent less time spewing your prejudice in inappropriate places, you’d have more time to tackle puzzles.

64. So it is Sunday morning and still have this one unfinished (6 clues to go) and have raised the white flag. Need to get on with Saturday’s 😉

    Should have goy BABYLON, but otherwise satisfied that it was beyond my ability.

65. Just for the record, my eldest son will be taking out Irish nationality if Brexit comes about, the next French , the next Spanish and the youngest German, I, hopefully, will float above all this…

66. Did this from an old paper on holiday (apart from two in NE), enjoyed it a lot.

    Any mention of Brazilian in this context reminds me of a comment from, I think, Andy Hamilton on The News Quiz, ‘I do not know why they call it a Brazilian, it looks more like Chile to me’.

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