Guardian 27,743 – Picaroon

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A typically enjoyable Picaroon puzzle, with a few tricky moments, but in general fairly straightforward. Thanks to Picaroon

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
9. CHIPOLATA Dash at a clip round horse, then old banger (9)
H[orse] and O[ld], separately, in (AT A CLIP)*
10. OBELI Rebellious Gaul’s broken end off daggers (5)
OBELI[X] – Gaulish character in the Asterix books
11. EMEND Correct conclusion is to embrace yours truly (5)
ME (yours truly) in END (conclusion)
12. GLAMOROUS Externally graceful, gaining in love? (9)
G[racefu]L + AMOROUS, &lit
13. MASTER’S Qualification from writing about movement in European arts (7)
(E ARTS)* in MS (manuscript)
14. BEDSIDE Place for tender date by houses (7)
This took me a while to parse: it’s D (date) in (housed by) BESIDE (by). The “tender” is a nurse or carer
17. SHARK Ferocious creature getting class finally to listen (5)
[clas]S + HARK (listen)
19. FOR Short fashion pro (3)
A shortened FORM (to fashion)
20. SONAR Nautical equipment led sailor the wrong way (5)
Reverse of RAN (led, as in “he ran/led the company”) + OS (Ordinary Seaman)
21. SPARRER Boxer to blunder around, cornered by Pole (7)
Reverse of ERR (to blunder) in SPAR (pole)
22. BURGERS The bourgeoisie calling out for food (7)
Homophone of “burghers”
24. OPERAGOER Is one eager or excited to follow theatre event? (9)
OP (operation, a “theatre event”) + (EAGER OR)*, &lit
26. ARROW One may be fired from public school in Hackney (5)
Cockney’s pronunciation of HARROW
28. EXIST A bit of sex is taped live (5)
Hidden in sEX IS Taped – “live” rhymes with “five” in the surface reading and with “give” as the definition
29. GOING DOWN Dropping dress without doing wrong (5,4)
DOING* in GOWN
Down
1. ACHE What about back pain? (4)
Reverse of EH (what?) + CA (circa, about)
2. VIDEOS Clips wings of ibis and dove flying around (6)
Anagram of I[BI]S + DOVE
3. WOODPECKER Powder, coke, rocks? It comes with a large bill! (10)
(POWDER COKE)*
4. LAUGHS Gush wildly after the Spanish female provides fun (6)
LA (Spanish feminine “the”) + GUSH*
5. TAPAS BAR Where to eat pasta twists with staff (5,3)
PASTA* + BAR (staff)
6. LOCO Crazy for señorita one may pull online (4)
Double definition – Spanish “crazy”; and a LOCO[motive] pulls a train on a railway line
7. DEVOTION Passion in a lot of 2 not broadcast (8)
Anagram of VIDEO[S] NOT
8. KISS Rick is severe, covering neck (4)
Hidden in ricK IS Severe
13. MUSES Entertains, wanting top source of inspiration (5)
AMUSES less its “top” letter
15. DISARRANGE Lift painter’s papers, with compass put out of place (10)
Reverse of RA’S ID, + RANGE (compass)
16. ÉPRIS Teacher prone to lose heart, flipping besotted (5)
Reverse of SIR (teacher) + P[ron]E – French word, I presume literally meaning “taken out” of oneself, hence in love, besotted
18. ACADEMIC Impressive in school, a rebel means to be heard (8)
A CADE (Jack Cade, 15th century rebel) + MIC (microphone, a means to be heard)
19. FURLOUGH Leave coat down that’s picked up (8)
FUR (coat) + homophone of “low”
22. BERLIN Cabaret setting from songwriter (6)
Double definition – setting of the stage musical and film Cabaret, and Irving Berlin, songwriter
23. ENROOT In ground, make fast kind of dash with cricketer (6)
EN (en-dash) + (Joe) ROOT (current captain of the England Test team)
24. OPEN Honest poet’s entreaty to write? (4)
The poet might say “O, PEN!”
25. ARTY Liking to draw, celebrate giving away page (4)
PARTY (to celebrate) less P
27. WINE Maybe red grouse, by the sound of it (4)
Homophone of “whine” (to complain, grouse)

44 comments on “Guardian 27,743 – Picaroon”

  1. Thanks to Picaroon and to Andrew: ‘typically enjoyable’ is just right.

    Small typo: 24d clue is not fully transcribed.

  3. 24a reminded me of my late ma and pa, who did the Ring cycle and also enjoyed Rumpole’s quip. But yes, not too hard from the pirate, albeit with a few dnps. Sussed obeli, thanks to our (then) boys’ love of Asterix [the Herge museum is fun]; dnp bedside properly (tender=carer, d’oh); loved 3d for the misdirection, tho easy; dnk epris, tho clear; slow to remember Cade the rebel, tho a regular, and groaned at O pen.

    Quite fun, ta Pickers and Andrew.

  4. Thank you, Andrew, especially for pointing out the reason for ‘tender’ in BEDSIDE; the other medical reference I always fail to spot is the alternative meaning of ‘theatre’ as seen in OPERAGOER – maybe my subconscious aversion to hospitals evident here? I also only belatedly remembered ‘Cade’ as a rebel in 18d’s ACADEMIC. I had heard of him before, but almost certainly only in a crossword context. Good fun overall though – so thanks to Pickers.

  5. Some good surfaces, such as 1d and 3 dn.  Some poor ones too – 19d.

    I too found 14 ac difficult to parse.

    Didn’t know the cricket captain, but guessed the answer.

    I though FURLOUGH was an Americanism but see that it’s listed in my Chambers, with no indication that it’s American.  Epris also listed, so suppose both are OK.

    Thanks Picaroon and Andrew

  7. Anna @6; OPERAGOER is one word in Oxford and in Collins, although the latter says American.

    Good solve, although I tried EPRIS but thought it couldn’t be a word. It’s in Chambers and Collins though – I blame 1066.

    I’ve often wondered how to clue a container around non-consecutive letters – 9A seems to work and is a nice clue.

    Thanks Picaroon and Andrew.

  8. To: Robi @7

    Thanks for that info.

    1066 – yep, can be blamed for a lot (smile) but I suspect this word was borrowed considerably later.

  9. Picaroon provides his usual treat of a crossword – the LH side of which was a lot ‘easier’ than the right

    Thanks to him and Andrew

  11. Not an Asterix follower so OBELI just wrote itself in.EPRIS fine and its in Chambers> Loved BERLIN but thought BURGERS was a bit smartypants.

    It didnt seem like a normal Picaroon where i scratch my head for a bit, maybe have a coffee and then  PDM! Different though.

  12. Bucking the trend, I didn’t enjoy this at all, not my cup of tea. It started out very easy, but then..

    I have never heard “burgeoisie” pronounced BURGERS. EPRIS seemed so unlikely I didn’t put it in – I should have checked.

     

    Thanks Andrew and Picaroon

  13. Thanks to Picaroon and Andrew. I guess I found this harder than many of the above commentators (though that is often the case with Picaroon). I started off slowerly and remained slow throughout. That said got there in the end, but never heard of 16d, and needed to come here to clarify some parsing. Last ones were burgers, epris and enroot. However a pleasant enough challenge with plenty of nice clues and thanks again to Picaroon and Andrew.

  14. I had an unparsed OPERATION for the “theatre event” for some time.  EPRIS and ENROOT were new – I wouldn’t have got the latter if Mr. Root hadn’t been in the news so recently, but at least I remember that pesky en-dash for once.   This was one that seemed easy at first, but suddenly ground to a halt when the last few held out.  Liked WOODPECKER, LOCO and BEDSIDE.

  15. David Ellison @12.

    “I have never heard “burgeoisie” pronounced BURGERS.” Neither have I – but that’s the way I would pronounce ‘burghers’.

  16. My favourites were OPEN, WOODPECKER.

    New words for me were Jack CADE, EPRIS, OBELI.

    I was unsure how to parse SPARRER and (h)ARROW but was sort of on the right track!

    Thanks Picaroon and Andrew.

  17. A game of two halves for me – left went in then the right some time after, top to bottom. I’m a bit surprised no-one’s complained about “whine” vs “wine” which sound rather different to me. Epris was new but obeli came back from footnote notation, though I admit I spent longer thinking about Caeser’s Gaul rather than Goscinny’s and Uderzo’s. Luckily I know the latter much better!

    My etui is slowly filling up as both en-dash and Jack Cade came back to me. So score one for old dogs and new tricks. I enjoyed the fact that the sim;ler clues here (run-ons, homophones, double defs) were quite well disguised (at least to me they were) so giving a more pleasant solve overall. It slowly unravelled, as a good puzzle should so thank you Picaroon, and Andrew for blogging it so nicely.

  18. Gosh! Happy to find I finished this correctly, what with not knowing EPRIS, nor that BURGHERS were the bourgeoisie, nor Mr. Root, nor where Cabaret was set. That bottom corner was a struggle!

    thezed @17: I’m delighted with the idea of an etui being a small case where one collects odd crossword words, and I may be using one in future…

  19. Another very fine crossword from Picaroon, with a few unusual words dictated by gridfill problems – I vaguely remembered OBELI from a previous puzzle but EPRIS was new to me (and fairly clued).

    Thanks to Picaroon and Andrew

  20. Enjoyed the xword quite a lot (although I had to dredge deep in memory for “epris”!) — thanks, Picaroon.

    One small note: The homophone in 27D doesn’t work for those of us who pronounce “whine” correctly.

  22. Thanks Picaroon and Andrew

    Two goes – a few before golf, but steady progress after. EPRIS is one the reasons I do crosswords – a word I’d never heard of that I was able to construct from the clue. Lots of others to enjoy too. LOI FOR!

    I’m not convinced by GLAMOROUS as &lit – “gaining in love” doesn’t seem to fit in the definition.

    I got BERLIN easily enough, but it would be a problem if you didn’t know Cabaret – there are a lot of songwriters!

  23. A good puzzle, up to this setter’s usual high standard.  I liked EPRIS, which was new to me but, as beery said, fairly clued.  Giving us just ‘food’ for BURGERS was a bit weak, though.  Unfortunately I didn’t know Berlin was the setting for Cabaret, and I failed tp come up with LOCO, a word, and meaning, I know well.

    I liked the clues to FOR, SONAR, OPERAGOER and WOODPECKER most of all.

    Thanks to Picaroon and Andrew.

  24. gothick @18 alas I cannot take the credit for the creation of the etui idea – I’ve seen it here a number of times. But very happy to help spread the word (&lit).

    Alan B @23 I agree re burgers and Berlin (and muffin @22) but both dropped out once I had enough crossers in place. TBH I had not fully clocked Caberet as being in Berlin (in spite of having seen a live performance) but did think of Berlin as home of Weimar-era cabaret, Kurt Weill, Bertolt Brecht and all that so it seemed to fit without the more specialised GK.

  25. Fairer in retrospect than it seemed at the time and mostly because I didn’t get all the subtleties of the parsing. I had 24 ac as ‘goer’ – one eager or excited – after ‘opera’ – theatre event – which works fine but isn’t as good as what was intended. Thanks to Andrew and Picaroon.

  26. It’s not often this grid is used without a purpose, but I’ve stared in vain.  My best guess is some sort of Valentine.  Any other silly theories?

    Thanks Picaroon, Andrew

     

  27. Thanks, Eileen @ 15 – I realised after I posted that a burgher might be a bourgeoisie, confirmed by googling it; I hadn’t met that before.

    In 6d, could someone more expert than I in Spanish, confirm that it should be “loca” for  “Crazy for señorita”?

     

  28. David @27

    If Spanish works like Italian (as I think it does), if the senorita was describing a male, loco would be correct

  30. jeceris ?29

    Printing terminology. Loosely-speaking, an en dash is a dash as long as an “n ” is wide in the font in use; in contrast an em dash is as long as an “m” is wide

  31. I enjoyed this, but found the last several entries pretty challenging (all on the RH side, as I think was the case with some of the other commenters).  I needed to Google-confirm EPRIS and ROOT the cricketer, but they were gettable from the wordplay and crossers.  I thought 29ac had an amusing surface, and for that it was one of my favorites.  [As for the solution to 29ac, GOING DOWN, I will say nothing further … other than to wonder what Paul — at least the “naughtier” version of Paul from the not-too-distant past — might have done with this phrase.]  I also liked WOODPECKER, OPEN, and especially ACHE, my CotD.

    James @26, I did not get my hopes up about the grid so much as I did about finding FOR as the middle word of a 5,3,5 line across the “equator” of the puzzle, and anticipating that the completed grid might contain (at minimum) a three-word phrase having some significance.  But after getting 17ac and 20ac, I was (and remain) convinced that SHARK FOR SONAR is not a Thing.

    Many thanks to Picaroon and Andrew and the other commenters.

  32. [… Also, FURLOUGH not only reminded me of the partial (and stupid and pointless) government shutdown we had here in the US in December/January (a repeat of which is, reportedly, being narrowly averted this week), but also, and more enjoyably, made me think of its almost-homophone Farlowe, which gave me occasion to find and listen to this — definitely my favorite EotD (Earworm of the Day).  The song title is only too true — I need to stop 15^2-ing and get back to work!!]

  33. LOI EPRIS which I’d not heard before and ENROOT was largely a guess because I know very few cricketers. Most of this was easier than usual for a Picaroon. lIked VIDEOS and BURGERS. I also liked BERLIN but I agree with Muffin that it’s a bit gk.
    Thanks Picaroon.

  34. @James

    Stimulated by your thinking, tomorrow I’m going to give Frau Bärchen a KISS, swear my undying DEVOTION and say “come on me old SPARRER, put on summat GLAMOROUS; we’re GOING DOWN the TAPAS BAR FOR WINE, BURGERS and a CHIPOLATA”. I’ll have eight pints of WOODPECKER

  36. Herr Baerchen, that sounds a pretty good valentine’s theme to me! I’m hoping you also happen to live in Berlin….
    This puzzle was a curate’s egg for me: I enjoyed OBELI (by Toutatis!) BURGERS, OPEN and FURLOUGH, was less taken by FOR and GLAMOROUS (which I don’t feel really works). I’d never heard of Jack Cade (history degrees really should be more use than this!) or the cricketer – both of which ended up being inspired guesses and I had to come here for the parsing. The less said about EPRIS the better; in all my years of living in France I’ve never encountered the word. I must get out more…. Thanks to Picaroon and Andrew.

  37. Quite straightforward for a Picaroon but generally nicely clued.  I struggled to see BEDSIDE, even with the crossers.  Liked WOODPECKER.  Thought GLAMOROUS was a bit clunky.

    Thanks, S&B.

    Baerchen, aren’t you forgettijng the hour spent watching the ARTY VIDEOS?

  38. Thanks to Picaroon and Andrew. I’m another who did not know Root the cricketer or EPRIS and I did not parse LOCO but I’m familiar with Jack Cade from Shakespeare’s Henry VI Part 2. It’s in his first scene that one of his fellow rebels (Dick the Butcher) provides the rallying cry beloved by my legal friends: “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.”

  39. It’s too much of a challenge to acknowledge the previous commenters whose experience I mirrored on a phone, but I’m in the mixed bag group and with those who found this at the more challenging end of my spectrum. There were plenty of
    excellent clues as usual from Picaroon but a few others seemed too much like hard work to me. My next challenge is to work EPRIS into conversation – I’m not sure that will be happening soon.
    Thanks to Andrew for some of the parsing (I’m another who forgot about the hospital theatre) and to Picaroon for the puzzle.

  40. Nice puzzle, with the RH taking a long time.  Thanks to Picaroon for the challenge and Andrew for the pain relief.

    muffin @22 — I don’t think the definition is “gaining in love.”  Rather, I think “externally graceful” is the definition, and “externally GracefuL” (GL) gaining “in love” (amorous) is the charade.  “Gaining” just attaches the two parts.

    I had no idea that “EPRIS” could be an English word.  I knew it, but only in French. Wellbeck @36 — now that you mention it, I don’t recall ever hearing anybody use the word in France either, so I must have known the word from reading.

    ENROOT doesn’t look like a word at all, though google dictionaries do confirm it.

  41. For burger and bourgeoisie, I lived in Quebec when French was required on all signs. This led to some incredibly weird things including that a hamburger (presumably written that way in France) became in Quebec an hambourgeois … along with chien chaud and stop signs that say Arrêt … Montreal is ALWAYS worth the visit.

  42. @baerchen

    The one I came up with involved a glamorous arty operagoer meeting an academic in a Berlin tapas bar for wine, burgers and a kiss but then descends into smut and has been repeatedly deleted.

  43. Valentine @40

    Yes that’s how I parsed it. The problem is that “externally graceful” is soing double duty, usuallu only excusable in an “&lit” clue.

  44. muffin @43  I had that problem with it too.  For a while i tried to convince myself it was an &lit, but couldn’t manage it.

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