A very tough puzzle this week: Paul on top form!
Has somebody bought Paul a dictionary of (outdated) slang? Quite a few examples (heavens to Betsy, my hat, beano and of course, “him upstairs”) made this puzzle great fun, but difficult to solve (and to parse). It was only when I came to write the blog that I finally worked it all out.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 HIM UPSTAIRS | One beginning to position essential pockets inside setter’s coat? Good Lord! (3,8) | |
| I (one) P(osition) in MUST (essential) all within HAIRS (setter’s coat). I don’t think I’ve ever come across the phrase itself, but it seems cognate with the rather better known “‘er indoors”. | ||
| 9 | See 13 | |
| 10 | See 17 | |
| 11 EYESTRAIN | Problem looking OK with school after low grade (9) | |
| E (low grade) YES (OK) TRAIN (school, as a verb). | ||
| 12 BEANO | A royal disapproval for party? (5) | |
| BEA (Princess Beatrice, a royal) NO. | ||
| 13, 19, 9 DROP ONE’S AITCHES | Processing Spoonerised chat, make not a lot of habit etc? (4,4,7) | |
| *(SPOONERISED CHAT). A very cryptic definition meant that we didn’t get this until we had quite a few crossers. | ||
| 14 MERCANTILE | Commercial breaks are initially mesmerising client (10) | |
| *(ARE M CLIENT). | ||
| 16 BUTTONHOLE | Catch on in the end (10) | |
| ON in BUTT-HOLE (not in Chambers, but the meaning is unmistakeable). Interestingly, the definition of buttonhole in Chambers is “to detain in talk (orig buttonhold)”. | ||
| 19 | See 13 | |
| 21 DWELL | Hang out first of washing in valley (5) | |
| W in DELL. | ||
| 22 ALBATROSS | A strike on head of robin in death — accursed bird? (9) | |
| BAT R(obin) in A LOSS. | ||
| 24 OVERDUE | Lord’s period noble after abdication of king — outstanding! (7) | |
| OVER (a passage of play in cricket, played at Lord’s), DU(k)E. | ||
| 25 TRIREME | Old vessel shipshape, on boarding, expedition’s beginning (7) | |
| RE (on) in TRIM, E(xpedition). | ||
| 26 TREE SURGERY | Welshman with desire to put in effort, saw work? (4,7) | |
| REES (Welshman) URGE (desire) in TRY (effort). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 HIT BELOW THE BELT | While bottle after spinning stopped by hapless Beth, play dirty (3,5,3,4) | |
| *(WHILE BOTTLE BETH). | ||
| 2 MY HAT | What covers Paul’s bald patch well! (2,3) | |
| Double definition. | ||
| 3 POSTAGE | Opening time — charge! (7) | |
| POST (opening – in the sense of a job, perhaps) AGE. We also thought about PASSAGE but couldn’t relate that to “charge”. | ||
| 4 TITANIC | Great Hollywood success (7) | |
| Another double definition. | ||
| 5 IMBIBING | Quaffing vat, what giant might say, drinking (8) | |
| BIN in I’M BIG. | ||
| 6 SITUATION COMEDY | Is it complete? Show part of it in full (9,6) | |
| Hidden in “is it complete”. Very clever. | ||
| 7 FAG END | What might have come before G Plan, briefly — something cast in gutter? (3,3) | |
| F (comes before G) AGEND(a). | ||
| 8 BY ROTE | How one might learn some of the Tory backbenchers turned up (2,4) | |
| Hidden and reversed in “the Tory backbenchers”. | ||
| 15 COOLIDGE | Appliance as it should be without French president (8) | |
| COOL (fr)IDGE. I had started to write in HOLLANDE before realising that the D was in the wrong place, but fortunately Timon came to my rescue. | ||
| 16 BAD LOT | Notice in defect, nasty piece of work (3,3) | |
| AD in BLOT. We originally entered BAD JOB, (a job being a piece of work) but I couldn’t then parse it. | ||
| 17, 10 HEAVENS TO BETSY | So, best ten bananas fed to gorilla, I say! (7,2,5) | |
| *(SO BEST TEN) in HEAVY (gorilla). | ||
| 18 LOBSTER | Nipper in loft, back shortly (7) | |
| LOB (loft) STER(n). | ||
| 20 SUSSEX | South American relations in historical county (6) | |
| S(outh) U.S. SEX. I’m not quite sure what “historical” is doing in the clue, unless Paul is being a little pedantic (Sussex is now divided into West Sussex and East Sussex for local government purposes). | ||
| 23 TWINE | Cord matching rope, ultimately (5) | |
| TWIN (matching) (rop)E. | ||
Thanks bridgesong. Once again I found Paul had made it hard to get started, the first pass yielding only two or three answers and the rest taking a lot more thought. The NW corner held me up at the end and I do think 1a is rather convoluted. I was caught out by the reference to Spoonerism and tried in vain to find words with transposed initial letters. I did like 6d though I spent more time trying to explain it than I should have – which I guess is the hallmark of a good clue.
This was a bit of a curate’s egg, as my dad used to say. There were some brilliant parts, for example South American (20d) and Lord’s period (24a), and what can I say about Buttonhole?!! But 6d seemed a bit of mess with the definition in the middle and the trailing part not doing much at all. Then there was 13, 19, 9 – the Spoonerized bit was clever misdirection, but “make not a lot of habit etc” was not exactly fluent English!
Thanks to Paul and bridgesong. I’m another who could not decide between POSTAGE and passage, did not parse SITUATION COMEDY, and struggled with HIM UPSTAIRS (that locution has an unintended ring to it).
Thanks both. I thought PASSAGE worked in the sense of the fee for a voyage. No complaints though.
This was quite a slow solve for me.
My favourites were last ones in – MY HAT & HIM UPSTAIRS, as well as the two long ones.
Thanks Paul and bridgesong.
I think HIM UPSTAIRS is used facetiously to mean God, though no doubt when there were masters and servants in many households and they lived upstairs and downstairs respectively, “him upstairs” was the master of the house. I assumed Paul meant the former reading by “Good Lord”?
In 1d, HIT BELOW (THE B)ELT, it’s technically an anagram (after spinning) of whilebottle, containing (stopped by) an anagram (hapless) of Beth.
Re 13/19/9, just to spell it out, if you drop your aitches then you will make ‘a bit'(not a lot) of “habit”.
I think I also entered PASSAGE for 3d, justifying in the same way as Gonzo. POSTAGE seems better for ‘charge’, though (even if pass fits “opening” better?).
I thought 16, BUTTONHOLE was COD and the surface such a brilliant tease, although extremely coarse and I wondered if some might find it beyond the pale?
I wish I would write my notes down when I finish the puzzle, because in the intervening week, I tend to forget what my impressions were. But yes I do think I remember this being slow-going while containing lots of satisfying breakthroughs.
I liked 11a EYESTRAIN, 1d HIT BELOW THE BELT and 2d MY HAT (as mentioned by michelle@5). In fact the other exclamation that I thought went well with “MY HAT” was HEAVENS TO BETSY at 17d 10a, though I did have to cross-check that BETSY was indeed a gorilla. The latter phrase containing “HEAVENS” then also linked neatly to 1a HIM UPSTAIRS – which I must say that like Tony@6 I equate that phrase more with the idea of “God in his heaven” rather than anything to do with the phrase “‘Er indoors”. Some great surfaces but I really struggled with that LOI – 6d SITUATION COMEDY – which was only resolved really by using the crossers. Tony@6, I can see what you mean, but I for one was not offended by 16d BUTTONHOLE and actually would have also given it my COD – or even CO(t)W – as it made me laugh out loud and smile again when I thought of it during the week. (It made me think of the early 80s band called Butthole Surfers, a band name that I have always found strangely amusing.)
Many thanks to Paul for all the enjoyable moments here and to bridgesong for explaining a few uncertainties.
Exactly the same thoughts as Gonzo and Tony about charging for passage, and although I did in the end go for postage, I thought either was justified. I guessed HIM UPSTAIRS once I had the H and M of HIM, (too many episodes of Minder, I suspect, given I couldn’t remember hearing the phrase itself) but couldn’t parse it. Now that it’s been explained – thanks, bridgesong – I really like SITUATION COMEDY, but I couldn’t work that out either. Good fun, though, and I enjoyed it all. Thanks, Paul.
I was another for PASSAGE, with the same parsing as Gonzo@4, and I still think it works at least as well as POSTAGE, so a dnf for me. BUTTONHOLE was a laugh-out-loud; I also liked ALBATROSS (my favourite theatre snack) and especially SITUATION COMEDY, which was my cod.
Thanks to Paul and bridgesong for the excellent puzzle and blog.
I continue to find Paul’s puzzles challenging and fresh, even though he is so prolific. Plenty of goodies here with TREE SURGERY, BUTTONHOLE, HEAVENS TO BETSY and COOLIDGE being my picks. The latter is perhaps my favourite president because of this story, which I believe I learnt about in another crossword.
I also thought SITUATION COMEDY was cleverly done. I like the wording even more than I did at the time, thanks to the blog. I read it now as a sort of CD cum hidden word clue, i.e. [The] Show part of [the phrase] Is it complete? (i.e. sitcom) [written] in full. On the other hand, I found the definition in DROP ONE’S AITCHES a bit laboured, because “etc” seems both superfluous yet also needed to justify the plural AITCHES. Didn’t quite work for me.
Overall though, most entertaining! Thanks, Paul and bridgesong.
Very nice. As a small point, 1d would be better parsed as an anagram of WHILE BOTTLE containing an anagram of BETH. Thanks all.
You just know it’s going to be good as soon as you see it’s a Paul. And so it was, with his trademark smut at 16 ac.
It took me ages to get started and even then the first half of the puzzle was very slow to get filled in. HEAVENS TO BETSY was a new expression to me and I only got it once I realised the gorilla was a heavy and worked out the anagram.
6 dn was obvious once the crossers were in but it took me ages to parse it. Same for 1ac.
These minor problems were far outweighed by the many good clues – definitely Paul on form.
Very enjoyable.
Thanks to Paul and to bridgesong.
PS to JiA @7
I write these notes immediately after finishing the puzzle but still manage to forget all about it when it comes to Saturday morning! Or find someone else has already made the points I was going to make …
This was a DNF for me. Partly because of the obscure phrases and difficult parsing; some of the solutions I considered but could not parse so did not write in. In the POSTAGE vs PASSAGE debate, I had a different answer PORTAGE. PORT = Opening, AGE=Time. PORTAGE=Charge (Price of Carriage according to carriage), Convinced it was correct meant that I could never find a suitable anagram for 13,19,9. However no complaints. Congratulations to Bridgesong and all the others who completed and parsed all the solutions.
sorry, but i just dont get where “STER” came from in 18dn- its listed as a noun but i can only find it as a suffix as in “youngSTER”. am i missing something really obvious?
re 14 my comment above- just got it, its “stern” without its back! not “n” for noun!!
PiesMcQ, STER comes from STERN missing the last letter. STERN = BACK and “shortly” signifies dropping final letter.
Definitely a curate’s egg for me too Dr WhatsOn@2. I find Paul’s solutions better than his clues in that his surfaces are often so convoluted that I don’t want to engage with them – 1a 13etc and 1d being prime examples here. Compare this to Tramp’s clueing last Tuesday (I think) where the puzzle was just as much a challenge but much more enjoyable – imho of course.
And then there are great clues like TREE SURGERY and MY HAT (my foi!). We had the POSTAGE PASSAGE debate and went with POST on the opening=position basis.
Thanks to Paul and to Bridgesong for the blog and parsing some I lost interest in.
An unusually hard puzzle, which took me till midweek to complete, but then I still filled in 1a and 3d with incorrect guesses, so I have to call it a dnf. Some were impressive (COOLIDGE and SITUATION COMEDY), and ‘Spoonerised’ provided a cunning red herring. BUTTONHOLE, cleverly, means ‘catch’ in two senses – literally something which clasps a button, and figuratively to grab hold of a person for unwanted conversation.
But others included unnecessary complications – why Paul’s ‘bald patch’, when his head generally would suffice? – why introduce ‘historical’ regarding SUSSEX, or define BEA as ‘royal’? (I follow bridgesong’s explanations for these two, but they are very weak as justifications.)
HEAVENS TO BETSY was a new phrase to me, and I suspect is more familiar to US solvers, who may well be among the ones to have commented first this morning – and of course they will be more familiar with BUTT-HOLE than we innocents in the UK!
Sussex isn’t “divided” – it doesn’t exist any more, East Sussex and West Sussex being the extant counties. So Paul is spot on with ‘historical’ (sjshart et al). I saw ‘…..in full’ as part of definition for SITCOM, so can’t agree with Dr W @2. I don’t think a hat ‘covers’ a head so ‘bald spot’ more apt, sjshart@18. ‘post’ is a better synonym for ‘opening’ than other suggestions here. All in all, no quibbles from me!
My favourite was DROP ONES AITCHES – witty and original. I also ticked SITCOM, FAG END and BUTTONHOLE (of course!).
Much fun and creativity from this brilliant setter as ever. How does he do it?!
Many thanks, both and all.
Well, Paul you defeated me. But it was, as ever, too much fun to mind. Simply couldn’t solve half a dozen in the end, and I still couldn’t parse many of those I did! so thank you Bridgesong even more than usual for the blog. My favourite was definitely 16ac – Paul’s sense of humour is one reason why I enjoy his puzzles so much
I went for PASSAGE in the end, on the basis that it was a Paul. If you put ‘back’ in front of it, it connects with 16a parsing.
I hate prize crosswords when I don’t finish. Always throw the paper in the recycling well before the next weekend.
We too thought this hard but enjoyable. Opted for POSTAGE, and agree with William F P @ 19 above that it is the preferable choice. Got, but could not parse SITUATION COMEDY, so many thanks to bridgesong for the explanation. Agree as to its cleverness. We are in the camp that relishes Paul’s gleeful childish naughtiness: would be much less fun without it. But our hearts sink when we see the word ‘Spooner’ or the like in a clue, so 13 ac was one of the last addressed – and loved discovering how we had been misled. Agree also with those who cannot see how Paul can be so fresh so often – hats off to him!
Not easy but by no means as difficult as some recent offerings from Paul. I didn’t parse everything but I did enjoy this. I haven’t heard the phrase HEAVENS TO BETSY since I used to read American comics!
Thanks Paul.
HEAVENS TO BETSY was familiar to be thanks to Lucy Ellmann – the narrator of her thousand page single sentence epic Ducks, Newburyport says (or thinks) it frequently.I still needed most of the crossers to see it, but overall this was not one of Paul’s tougher oned.
Paul is old beyond his years – full of outdated expressions, and always has been. This crossword was extreme old-Paul, but I enjoyed it and got there happily on Saturday afternoon in a Chorlton bar. My hat! Beano. Dwell. Do people still say “He’s a bad lot”? Heavens to Betsy!
Like the man said, a tough one. Got my brain cells going on a cold Monday morning. Thanks to setter and blogger.
Wasn’t it the mariner who was cursed rather than the albatross?
Thanks to Paul and bridgesong.
Where did it all go wrong? Well, TREE SURGEON didn’t help (indefensible, I knowwww…), which blanked off SITUATION COMEDY (shame; would have enjoyed that.) and a curious inability to get from H_M to HIM etc.
JinA@7: (and offered in a spirit of podean/antipodean consanguinity) the gorilla in the room is the all-embracing “heavy”. But you knew that. Bill please…..
two.chops@28: I think he was cursed for killing the albatross so yes. The albatross didn’t come well out of it of course. Borderline moot I’d say.