Guardian 28,067 / Paul

71 comments on “Guardian 28,067 / Paul”

1. I think “found by relative” in the clue for MOSES refers to Grandma Moses, who also, incidentally, lived over a hundred years.

2. Pretty tough.  Lots biffed and parsed later.  1/100 penny dropped way too late to be any help.  Thanks Eileen – admirable of you to admit you needed help with parsing; I think most of us did. Thanks (I think) to Paul.

3. Thanks for the v helpful blog Eileen. Gave up with half dozen clues abandoned, several unparsed, completely foxed by the 1/100 reference … too dim for this one.

4. Thanks, blaise @1 – I did think of Grandma Moses but forgot to look her up!

5. 26 is Grandma Moses – explains the relative!

6. Guessed the clue fairly  early on after DE HAVILLAND and HOPE, but my  knowledge of centenarians being scanty, it didn’t help me much.     Very tough, and like others a lot of guesswork from the crossers and then head-scratching over the parsing.   After three gentle days, a tough task today.

7. I too gave this up prematurely with a sigh, found the 1/100 impenetrable. Should have been more patient or phoned a friend or two like Eileen…

8. Thank you for being late Eileen – I had about 6 I could not parse and would’ve come here for enlightenment. With no blog I was forced to go back and work them all out for myself! A fun theme but without encylopaedic knowledge of centenarians it was not much help (once spotted…I too had “de havilland” and “douglas”, together with “burns” and no clue for a long time! A bit more wordplay or other cluing on “hope” and “burns” would’ve been nice as even with the theme, there are a lot of people who lived over 100 years.

   Still, this could’ve been a prize and took longer than Mon-Wed combined I think! Thank you Paul for the ingenuity, and Eileen for figuring it all out in the end.

   Incidentally, for “stewards” I read it as a stowaway would be hidden in a ship, hence “drawet” is hidden in “ss” once reversed.

9. When the cossie appears at midnight in the UK it is 7 am here. I print the crossie and carry it around with me, dipping in when circumstances permit.
   Some friends have recently called for somethong more challenging; they got it today! Despite Eileen’s brilliant blog I am none the wiser to the 1/100 thing. I got moses,help and berlin, but still no idea.
   Despite

10. @Tomsdad @6 ‘guessed the theme’ – I’m still dazed!

     

11. Thanks, Eileen for revealing the theme – which I had no idea of, and had to resort to the ‘check’ button to confirm my guessed answers.

    At 26ac, Paul was probably referring to Grandma Moses (1860-1961).

12. Just read above comments. Aahh, centenarians! Love Paul.

13. TheZed @8 re STEWARDS: that’s what I meant to imply. Sorry if it wasn’t clear – I’m a bit sleep-deprived!

14. I got unduly irritated by the 1/100 but ultimately decided to ignore it which helped. Quite a frustrating solve and yet by the end I had a dozen ticks so maybe one best enjoyed with the benefit of hindsight (hindsolve?). I will be interested to see if @rodshaw found this one too easy!

15. I thought I was getting better at this game until today! For me too, this was impenetrable and the surfaces didn’t seem to make any sense. I thought clues like 11a for OVIPOSITOR were particularly nonsensical, but by the time I solved that one I was getting very cross at my own dimness. I didn’t see the significance of the 1/100 device and I am not sure I would have even if I had sat with the puzzle for longer. A pity as I usually love a good Paul. After lots of cheating I filled in the grid, but not much of it made sense until I came here.

    Along the way to an epic solving fail, I ticked 10a MISTLETOE (at least I understood “one of ten”), 17d THINKING and 20d STASIS.

    Thanks to Eileen and Paul. Now I see that it was a very clever puzzle, but on this occasion, Paul was far too devious for me!

16. I sort of sussed DOUGLAS, BURNS and then BERLIN to twig it-especially as the mighty Kirk only left us recently.

    I thought the quality of clues was patchy I didnt mind Moses especially after a recce of stars making a ton.

    I thought BONSAI and TRICOLOUR for starters, were laboured.

    Whereas the same setter came out with Burly Chassis yesterday

    Thanks Eileen-and thanks Serpent for puzz of the day.

17. Hope not help.

18. Thanks Paul and Eileen

    After getting DOUGLAS and DE HAVILLAND I Googled the FTSE 100 – neither was on it!

19. A ‘finish’ only with the help of the check button. A slog with the ingenuity only appreciated on completion, although I did get the theme with the help of Google. Thanks Eileen for the helpful blog and to other commenter, to see that I am no alone!

20. Are Stewards officers?

21. Same as ng @19; like Eileen, once I had DOUGLAS and DE HAVILLAND I thought this was centenary aircraft manufacturers. I guess there would have been less adverse comment if this had been posted on a Saturday.

    Thanks Paul and Eileen for revealing some of the parsing I had missed. It’s not good to start solving at 1.00 am!

22. Very many thanks to Paul for exercising this octogenarian’s grey matter, and to Eileen for parsing a couple of answers that I was struggling with. I have two niggles: a steward is not an officer, and Serbo-Croat was a language, never a ‘European’ (Serbs and Croats were hardly natural friends, even in the days of Yugoslavia). I still have a Serbo-Croat dictionary, now of little practical use.

23. Feliks @20: sorry, we crossed. Stewards on board wait on officers.

24. I found this on WordWeb for steward: The ship’s officer who is in charge of provisions and dining arrangements

25. Robi @24: not when I was in the Navy, but that was 1/100 years ago, more or less.

26. Thank you Paul and Eileen.

    This was tough, last one in was DISSOLVED (Terminated: grid ultimately … has been completed !).

    I twigged the 1/100 after getting VERA LYNN, had ‘read’ something recently about her, I thought here, but can find nothing on search, perhaps in The Guardian?

    Feliks @20, I have never heard STEWARDS being referred to as officers, probably they are on these ghastly huge cruise ships.

27. Well Paul, another morning vanished, but thanks anyway.
    Finally completed the grid incorrectly having sussed that Sting was once of the Police, which gives an unparsed Mason for the final centenarian.
    Once the theme was recognised by Mrs Job (PVB) we decided to struggle on, pausing only to tick THINKING and BABYSIT (lovely definition). Similar reservations about STEWARDS and SERBO CROAT but finally a puzzle to relish, especially after enjoying your super blog Eileen. Also enjoyed reading about tribulations of other solvers, so thanks to all, yes even Paul.

28. PS, according to wiki “Chief stewards on large passenger vessels can be considered to be officers”.

29. Hopefully no-one has done it yet today (I daren’t look at the preceding comments), but please no spoilers to other crosswords.  There seems to be a growing trend to cross-comment, but the site policies are clear that these pages are to cover discussion of the individual crosswords, not whatever comes into people’s minds on a particular day. Not all of us are lucky enough to do a week’s puzzles in order and like to catch up later. The giving away of solutions or themes from other crosswords is not appreciated. As a particular example, cross-commenting ruined the Nutmeg from earlier this week for anyone saving it for later.

30. So would that be a blanket ban on any comments on Guardian cryptic crosswords over, let’s say, the last 20 years, perhaps…?

31. I got the theme eventually when I was struggling with BURNS is painful. Found the whole thing rather hard work and less rewarding/enjoyable than normal for Paul; but then my favourite clue was THINKING so maybe I’m a simple minded soul! Thanks Eileen and Paul.

32. This was tough, and clever, but not one of Paul’s best.

    ‘1/100’ was of course a cryptic reference to the theme, but I didn’t get it and would only have done so if I had spent time thinking about it after completion. ‘1/100’, I noted, served as the definition of each of those answers, so there was only the wordplay from which to work out or guess them.

    The non-themed clues were to a high standard, thank goodness, and reminiscent of an excellent fairly recent puzzle by this setter (a Prize, from memory). Some answers (or part-answers), though, were indicated by associated words rather than actual definitions, such as plain/ugly, issue/seed and contracts/deflates. But kudos to him for such originality: I really liked ‘optimistic desire’ for HOPE.

    SERBO-CROAT was a straightforward anagram, and one of my first in, but there is no indication in the clue that it is a European language.

    I’m not a good theme-spotter at the best of times, but I see it now – thanks Eileen (and Gaufrid!).

    And thanks to Paul for the challenging puzzle.

33. I loved this, once I saw the theme, despite some clues being wilfully complicated in the Paul-ine way. I had to look up tricot and got the wrong MOSES; it has delayed useful work for 2 hours, but in an entertaining way. In the Merchant Navy, only the pursers are officers in the Stewards section. Stewards work for them. Thanks Paul, and thanks to the honest Eileen.

34. For me, this was Paul on tip-top form.  I found this puzzle hard but immensely rewarding, with many brilliant clues.  I thought the 1/100 “one over a hundred” PDM was well worth the effort fathoming it.  I also went down the aircraft manufacturers blind alley (with DOUGLAS and De HAVILLAND), but got there in the end.  Many favourites, including DOUGLAS, SERBO-CROAT, SPECIES, ILFRACOMBE (it was new to me), THINKING and the beautiful semi &lit BONSAI.

    Great crossword, not a dud clue in sight.  Thanks, Paul and Eileen.

35. Oh, and VERA LYNN delayed me. because by then I’d assumed 1/100 could mean ONE over C and hence ONCE for the second word. It was De Havilland that made me realise it was about age.

     

36. My path to solution, if not enlightenment, was the same as Eileen’s, except that I started at 4 am and for the same reason. I filled the grid, couldn’t parse at least half-a-dozen and had no idea of the theme. After getting DE HAVILLAND, DOUGLAS and BERLIN, I started researching the Berlin Airlift, which didn’t get me far!

    After a couple of hours sleep the penny dropped over breakfast, but I still needed to come here for the parsings.

    Thanks to Paul for another imaginative crossword and to Eileen, as ever, for her explanations.

37. Shucks! Missed an apostrophe!

38. Thank you so much, Eileen! I needed lots of help with the parsing, although I guessed the theme eventually. Mistletoe didn’t come to me as a poisoner; I was trying to think of famous classical criminals. I still don’t get 8D. How would the stowaway come into it?

39. Of all the Guardian crosswords in the last seven days, prize included, I found that by far the biggest challenge.  For some reason I found the SE corner to be more straightforward than the rest, but that only gave be MOSES and BURNS of the themed clues.  That was a headscratcher, as George Burns refused to enter my head.  I was fixated on the Burns being Robbie, and could think of no poet, or famous Scot, called Moses.  Then I abandoned this line, and thought it was maybe Ed Moses, and of course there is the screenwriter Ed Burns (of The Wire, etc.), but it seemed unlikely, and what was the 1/100 all about?

    Then I got DOUGLAS, followed shortly by DE HAVILLAND.  Penny drop moment.  The rest of the theme was a near write-in, and I was away, but still hit difficulties thanks to well-written clues and tough parsing.  OVIPOSITOR was new to me, and LOI, not helped by the all-vowel crossers (O_I_O_I_O_!)

     

    Thanks to Paul, and to Eileen for the helpful blog.

     

40. Norfolkdumpling@38,

    The clue’s saying that TEWARD (DRAW ET reversed) is hidden, as a stowaway would be, in a ship (SS).

41. Fabulous crossword! Thanks, John. When I got De Havilland and Douglas, like Eileen, I thought it might be film related (Melvyn, in the latter case, which shows the kind of films I like to watch), but knowing that Joan Fontaine’s older sister was still going strong at 103 gave me another way in. Certainly helped with Burns, Hope and Berlin.

    ND, the idea at 8d is that ‘tie alien’ are hidden in reverse in a ship (SS), as a stowaway might be. Whimsical stuff.

42. Well done and many thanks Eileen. Rather like JinA whilst I can see this is a very clever puzzle it is in the category of too much like hard work to be fun to me. And whilst all the clues can be parsed perfectly well that doesn’t make them great clues in my book when the surfaces are so awkward to read.
    It’s comforting to be in the same boat as many (most) contributors in coming her with unparsed solutions – I think I’ve set a new personal best in that regard today, beating my previous pb which was also a Paul.
    My double tick went to DISSOLVED because of the relief of finishing the puzzle with a clue that wasn’t an anagram and that I could understand. Thanks also to Paul – keep them coming.

43. “Serbo-Croat was a language, never a ‘European’”

     

    Indeed – in fact not even a language either strictly speaking.

44. Oscar Overt @43
    I’m not sure what you mean by ‘not even a language’. Serbo-Croat is the main language (written in either Latin or Cyrillic script) of the countries in that part of Europe where (roughly) Yugoslavia used to be.
    Serbo-Croat is in the Indo-European family of languages. ‘European’ is neither a language nor a language family.

45. What ng@19 said. Thanks both.

46. Glad to hear some of you got plenty of pleasure out of this, too tough for me as I couldn’t get the 1/100 theme and otherwise too many tough clues/new words…I tend to only be good with the theme ones if the non-theme clues are of an easier standard as an in (or I spot the theme quickly) and that wasn’t the case here. But I appreciate Paul’s ingenuity and thanks for the helpful blog as always.
    One question and one thought:
    Can someone explain why “features” = goes round? I don’t get it?
    Personal view, I don’t like the theme clues that are impossible without the theme. I’d go as far as to say 23 and 24 aren’t cryptic clues, they are quick crossword clues if you’ve got the theme and (without most crossers) impossible if you haven’t. At least 14 (for example) stands up on its own.

47. If people like a Crossword with their paper then the Guardian is pitching to an elite few with this one. Makes one think of jumping ship – again.

48. Got sidetracked thinking 26a was MATHS [1/100], via TH [Some other] + [fraction]S found by MA [relative].

49. Nice one, so-called ‘Oscar Obert’!

50. Stuart @46 I took it in the sense that e.g. Casablanca “features” Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman i.e. they are in the film. My objection to this clue is that “bonsai” is a technique applied to any tree, shrub etc, not a type of tree. It just means “pot bound” in English effectively. I agree with you on the less-than-cryptic definitions – I do think it is fair to have an overt theme where you need the theme to solve the clues, but a ghost theme is less fair. This one sort of falls between the two but I just found them to be weak clues as I mentioned in my first post.

51. TheZed @50 – that’s how I read ‘features’, too.

    I had the same thoughts about BONSAI but I’m afraid Chambers gives it as ‘a dwarf tree  growing in a pot … the art of growing such trees’.

52. Thanks TheZed…I guess features makes sense…don’t get me started on it=SA (only in crosswords, I’ve never in real life heard anyway say, or seen anyone write, ‘SA’ as an abbreviation for sex appeal. Whilst here it crops up once a week! You’d think I’d remember by now….)

53. Nice coincidence — I had forgotten about Grandma Moses, but I have just finished a book (PG Wodehouse: A Life In Letters) and the lady in question was referenced, which helped us to get 26a!

54. I had two hopes of completing this crossword.  Bob Hope and no hope.

55. Complaints about them being too easy and today about them being too hard!

    As someone already said here, if I was irritated to start with today it was irritation at my own ignorance. This was an absolute classic. Not sure we were worthy of it on a Thursday but gratefully received here in any case.

    I forgot about George Burns. I was thinking of Mr Burns, Monty Burns, from The Simpsons.

56. All been said of course,I just popped in to say that I found this at least as difficult as everybody else. It’s odd but when I’m baffled by something- like 1/100, in this case – even quite straightforward clues appear impossible. I finally completed the grid but not without a great deal of difficulty. Still there was a lot of good stuff in here.
    Thanks Paul

57. I stumbled through and eventually completed this puzzle but without getting the theme.  I actually saw Bob Hope once, at Disneyland, Los Angeles in November 1999.  He was there for the “inaugural traditional” switching on of the Christmas lights.  He was wheeled in in a golf buggy and there was an embarrassing gap when it was time for him to do the deed – I think his wife must have eventually placed his hand on the golfball shaped lever and pushed.  Interestingly, his wife Dolores (May 27, 1909 – September 19, 2011) wouldn’t have qualified for this puzzle as she was too old, 102 when she died.

58. Would have made a great Saturday Prize puzzle.

59. David Clark @58 – Dolores would still qualify, as it’s ‘one (a person) over 100’ rather than ‘100 +1’ that Paul intends.

60. I couldn’t resist having a go at this after seeing the mysterious recurring fraction. The 1p soon dropped but it was a still a tough solve. Very satisfying though – many thanks to Paul. Yes, there have been lots of centenarians but with all respect to Ruth Apilado et al these are surely among the most well-known. Had to look up the sea goddesses and couldn’t parse BONSAI – thanks to Eileen for the helpful blog. Not sure if anyone has pointed out thet (Queen Elizabeth) the Queen Mother,  referenced in 9ac,  was also a centenarian  but I don’t quite get Eileen’s comment.  And  why the question marks in the last two down clues?

    (Sorry for late comment –  I didn’t finish it until waking up at 2,30am this morning)

61. 8d – Stewards seems fine to me, even if they’re not ship’s officers. Ship gives you the SS, and you can be a steward in a Royal Court . . . Tolkien certainly thought so!

62. Having given up on the crossword, I turned my attention to the blog. Have I missed it, or was there no mention of the great Katherine Johnson, who died this week, aged 101, and surely must have been the inspiration for this theme?

63. Gave up. Got the 1/100 theme after VERA and BERLIN, but nearly rejected it as DE HAVILLAND the aircraft designer died too young. Then remembered the actor.

64. John Faben @63

    I think it’s more likely that Kirk Douglas, who died earlier in the month, was the inspiration for this puzzle. There was a letter in the Guardian in response to his obituary, in which he was described as ‘the last of the Hollywood greats’, pointing out that Olivia de Havilland was still going strong.

    Katherine Johnson’s obituary appeared in the Guardian only today – I agree that she deserves a tribute puzzle!

65. Thanks to Eileen and Paul

    How does “Man’s man” = “Man’s capital”, and how is “Lutheran” is speared by “Zulu the rancorous”?

66. I’m a late finisher but I finally filled the grid. Because I always make a beeline for multi word solutions, I got VERA LYNN and DE HAVILLAND first and guessed the centenarian theme but it didn’t help me in the least. Many thanks to Eileen for parsing many that I couldn’t understand and for researching the facts on the 100 year olds.

67. I thought the ‘1/100’ business didn’t really add a lot, to be honest. Famous people who lived to 100+ is a bit too vague a group for it to be really effective. It would have been good to see variation in its use, e.g. in wordplay (there’s ‘one in ten’ in MISTLETOE which is similar, I guess).

    In the clues I enjoyed BABYSIT, ILFRACOMBE, HOUSEBOAT, DISSOLVED.

68. Dansar@66 : DOUGLAS is a place on the Isle of Man that’s also a man’s name – I thought it fair. Agree about ‘speared’ though.
    Thanks Paul and Eileen

69. There’s a place on the Isle of Man called PATRICK as well.

    “Man’s bigger man”?

70. Alan B @44  \”I’m not sure what you mean by ‘not even a language’. Serbo-Croat is the main language (written in either Latin or Cyrillic script) of the countries in that part of Europe where (roughly) Yugoslavia used to be.
    Serbo-Croat is in the Indo-European family of languages. ‘European’ is neither a language nor a language family.\”

     

    Because Serbian and Croatian are two distinct languages.

71. Thankyou Eileen for your well justified comments! Having discovered a little treasure trove of undone Guardian crosswords from the past, we have been having a wonderful doing them, with great success and enjoyment. UNTIL this one.
    I’m sure this is sour grapes, but rubbish surfaces, clunky convoluted constructions and a ludicrously loose theme are phrases that come to mind! Paul! You can do better than this.

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