The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/28121.
An amusing diversion from Picaroon. Very nice.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | TOUPEE | Why one visits bathroom without posh rug (6) |
| An envelope (‘without’) of U (‘posh’) in TO PEE (‘why one visits bathroom’ – at least one all-too-frequent reason for doing so). | ||
| 4 | RASCAL | Troublemaker, a scallywag at heart (6) |
| A hidden answer (‘at heart’) in ‘troublemakeR A SCALlywag’, with an &lit definition | ||
| 9 | AIR ON THE G STRING | Continue to show a certain undergarment, a German number (3,2,3,1,6) |
| A charade of AIR ON (‘continue to show’) plus THE G-STRING (‘a certain undergarment’); the Air from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 3 was arranged by August Willhelmj (another German), transposing the first violin part of the original so that it may be played entirely on the lowest string of the violin, the G-string. | ||
| 10 | PISTOL | Dick twisted many an arm (6) |
| A charade of PI (Private Investigator, ‘dick’) plus STOL, a reversal (‘twisted’) of LOTS (‘many’). | ||
| 11 | SINISTER | Tries pants on wrong, looking ugly (8) |
| A charade of SIN (‘wrong’) plus ISTER, an anagram (‘pants’) of ‘tries’, with ‘on’ suggesting the order of the particles. | ||
| 12 | ELONGATE | Draw out scandal involving Musk (8) |
| A whimsical coinage ELON-GATE, with -GATE as the all-purpose suffix for a scandal, this one involving ELON Musk. | ||
| 14 | LEARNS | Discovers large nets (6) |
| A charade of L (‘large’) plus EARNS (‘nets’, verb) | ||
| 15 | ICE-CAP | Trump’s enforcers limit what Pole may display (3-3) |
| A charade of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ‘Trump’s enforcers’) plus CAP (‘limit’). | ||
| 18 | DRIPPING | Saturated fat (8) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 21 | DOWNTURN | Drop of tea, we hear, in blue vessel (8) |
| An envelope (‘in’) of T (‘tea, we hear’) in DOWN (‘blue’) plus URN (‘vessel’). | ||
| 22 | ALCOVE | Shelter from a Catholic overwhelmed by pointlessness? (6) |
| A charade of ‘a’ plus LCOVE, an envelope (‘overwhelmed by’) of C (‘Catholic’) in LOVE (‘pointlessness’ in tennis). | ||
| 24 | BERMUDA TRIANGLE | A Rembrandt concocted with guile and craft may go missing here (7,8) |
| An anagram (‘concocted’) of ‘a Rembrandt’ plus ‘guile’. | ||
| 25 | PASTRY | After fool’s sent back, taste sweet dish (6) |
| A charade of PAS, a reversal (‘sent back’) of SAP (‘fool’) plus TRY (‘taste’). | ||
| 26 | AGENCY | Action of a lowdown, gutless cowboy (6) |
| A charade of ‘a’ plus GEN (‘lowdown’, information) plus CY (‘gutless CowboY‘). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | TRIVIAL | Minor hearing about sex in Rome (7) |
| An envelope (‘about’) of VI (Roman numeral 6, ‘sex in Rome’ – sex is Latin). in TRIAL (‘hearing’). | ||
| 2 | U-BOAT | Note circling reptile is a threat, in the main (1-4) |
| An envelope (‘circling’) of BOA (‘reptile’) in UT (‘note’; originally the first note of the sol-fa, now replaced by Do. See Wiki). | ||
| 3 | ESTELLA | Pip’s ideal extracted from grapes? Tell agriculturist (7) |
| A hidden answer (‘extracted from’) in ‘grapES TELL Agriculturalist’. Pip also appeared in yesterday’s Boatman. | ||
| 5 | ARSENAL | Ways artist’s lifted up magazine (7) |
| A reversal (‘lifted up’ in a down light) of LANES (‘ways’) plus RA (‘artist’). | ||
| 6 | CARD SHARP | Foolishly had scrap with Republican who won’t deal fairly (4,5) |
| An anagram (‘foolishly’) of ‘had scrap’ plus R (‘Republican’). | ||
| 7 | LANTERN | Light, new, lit up rental houses (7) |
| An envelope (‘houses’) of N (‘new’) in LATERN, an anagram (‘lit up’, in the sense of intoxicated) of ‘rental’. | ||
| 8 | NESSIE | Monster, one in northerly German city (6) |
| An envelope (‘in’) of I (‘one’) in NESSE, a reversal (‘northerly’ in a down light) of ESSEN (‘German city’). | ||
| 13 | NICKNAMES | Informally, handles collars worn by celebrity (9) |
| An envelope (‘worn by’) of NAME (‘celebrity’) in NICKS (‘collars’, arrests). | ||
| 16 | CLOSE-UP | Come off worst in competition still (5-2) |
| An envelope (‘in’) of LOSE (‘come off worst’) in CUP (‘competition’). The definition refers to a photograph. | ||
| 17 | PLUNDER | Sacking personnel extremely ready for operation? (7) |
| A charade of PL (‘PersonneL extremely’) plus UNDER (anaesthetic, ‘ready for operation’. | ||
| 18 | DENOTE | Stand for leader of England with muscular back (6) |
| A reversal (‘back’) of E (‘leader of England’) plus TONED (‘muscular’). | ||
| 19 | IMAGING | The writer’s getting on, showing representational technique (7) |
| A charade of I’M (‘the writer’s’) plus AGING (‘getting on’). | ||
| 20 | NOVELTY | Creativity in book covers of Tolstoy (7) |
| A charade of NOVEL (‘book’) plus TY (‘covers of TolstoY‘). | ||
| 23 | CANON | One is found in chapter, as a rule (5) |
| Just over a fortnight ago, I blogged a puzzle by Imogen, and in 4D discussed canons in chapters, which made this double definition immediately obvious to me. | ||
Well, I’m embarrassed not to have parsed the US-centric ICE-CAP, my LOI. Thanks to PeterO for that, as well as for the explanation of TRIVIAL. I had assumed that ‘sex’ was a Grauniad typo for ‘six,’ but my ignorance didn’t hold me up in getting to the answer. Otherwise a sparkling puzzle. Special ticks for the Paul-like TOUPEE and the &lit RASCAL.
Fairly easy, with a few amusing clues (eg 1A) …. LOI was 16D, which I had difficulty parsing until reading this blog. It occurred to me that Brits would be puzzled by 15A, which was among my FOIs.
Thanks to Peter O for parsing U-boat and Ice-cap which I couldn’t do. Will remember the Ut! Eissen is also a N German city which reverses in whole to Nessie. Enjoyed this puzzle very much.
While a gentle potter to fill the grid, still quite a bit to learn. Forgot about PI for Dick, dnk the acronym ICE, or Ut the earlier version of Do, and canon was a biff and ?, so I must have skipped over PeterO’s ref to canons and chapters a fortnight ago. Pointlessness? for love in 22ac was cute, and nicks around name in 13d was neat. All fun, thanks both.
Easier than Picaroon usually is, but no less enjoyable. Lovely stuff as ever.
Thanks to Picaroon and PeterO
After the Grauniad’s almost obligatory trip to the lavatory, another cracking puzzle from Picaroon.
(Off topic, a very happy birthday to Captain Tom Moore who has proved inspirational to so many in these difficult times).
I took far too long to get toupee given that I guessed the intended meaning of wig straight away. I struggled to get agency. Isn’t agency in this sense the capability to take an action, not an action itself? Canon was my loi also despite seeing the interpretation of chapter.
Thanks Picaroon and PeterO
I enjoyed this, but thought that it might be a bit GKy for some. For instance, ESTELLA was my favourite clue for its surface and neatly-hidden word, but I “did” Great Expectations for O level.
I forgot PI for Private Investigator, and simply didn’t know ICE as enforcers.
DRIPPING was my other standout clue. I also like TOUPEE – sorry howard, my FOI!
George @6 Tom Moore, yeah, great distraction, bread and circuses. Allows people to give themselves a slap on the back for doing their bit, when half of them voted for the tax cuts that made it necessary for a 100 year old to raise money that the government should be providing itself.
Sorry for the rant, I’m sure he’s a great guy, but I’ve had enough of the media talking about him so much and letting the government off the hook.
muffin @8, no need for apologies, toupee really should have been my foi too!
Deeply envious of muffin’s ability to remember O level subjects, I can barely remember last night’s dinner.
Lovely puzzle yet again from this fine setter. I so admire inventiveness such as pointlessness for ‘love’.
Favourites included TOUPEE, PISTOL, DRIPPING, AGENCY, & TRIVIAL.
Only minor weak point was BERMUDA TRIANGLE which fairly flew off the pen.
Many thanks, both.
howard@9, spot-on. Meanwhile Amazon are making upwards of £8k every minute and paying peanuts in taxes. Dickie Branson wants and will probably get a bail-out whilst care workers make do with black bin-bags. Mr Wetherspoon wants to re-open his sh*&hole pubs but won’t pay his staff a living wage. That’s what half of us voted for, mustn’t grumble though.
Still, nice puzzle thanks to P & PO
Like muffin, TOUPEE was my FOI. Not too hard for a Picaroon, I thought. Lots to enjoy as ever. Many thanks to him, and to PeterO for explaining Ut!
By a curious coincidence they showed The Addams Family on French TV last night, so Bermuda Triangle was festering in my little grey cells.
Quite a few write-ins and quite a few I struggled with. I did not see the parsing for “ice-cap” having never heard of “ICE” and thought that a bit unfair. But then I also read very little Dickens (yet…a treat I am saving for when I have time on my hands and the entire house is redecorated and garden finished!) but the name Estella came pretty easily to mind from somewhere, and I think things like that are pretty much part of our cultural heritage, as is the wedding at Cana and the patience of Job. I thought “U-boat” a very interesting clue – usually I find “note” a frustrating hint as it can be any of A-G, plus H, do, re, me, mi etc and now “ut”. However, the definition gave it away and one could work back from that to a more satisfying end.
Thank you Picaroon, and PeterO for the erudite blog.
Worth doing this for TOUPEE alone in my opinion. Yes, FOI but delightful and witty. I join those who have learned/remembered about ‘ut’: I’m a learner on this occasion. Needed PeterO’s blog to parse PISTOL and to understand the VI in TRIVIAL. Smiled at ELONGATE: I see he’s in the news again calling for the freeing of California. NICKNAME and ALCOVE also got ticks. Agree with William @11 that BERMUDA TRIANGLE was a write in but I’m in a forgiving mood this morning and the rest of the workout was enjoyable.
Thanks Picaroon and PeterO
Interesting that some (William @11, Mark @16) disliked BERMUDA TRIANGLE – I agree it was an easy solve, but the wording of the clue ran together so well it was my favourite.
Not a NINA by any means, but there is an enjoyable undercurrent of snark about the man who polled several million fewer votes than Hillary Clinton – TOUPEE, troublemaker, lowdown gutless cowboy, Republican who won’t deal fairly…
First in was BERMUDA TRIANGLE before I even looked at a clue. Congratulations to my far off friend. We complete the puzzles much more quickly together on the clunky Guardian app. Sometimes but not today before 15 squared is posted. Now, to get a word in edgeways I confess to entering answers without scrupulous parsing and moving on. So thanks to 15 squared for all the explanations.
Like your bloggers we often try to speculate on the identity of tomorrow’s setter. Research has uncovered the absence of ARACHNE, ENIGMATIST and ORLANDO in any puzzle this year. When will we see them again? Without ARACHNE how on earth can the Guardian manage even one female setter per week? Unless it’s CARPATHIAN, none so far this week!
Thanks for the blog, PeterO.
What a treat today! – Picaroon here and Goliath [Philistine] still to do in the FT.
Lots of ticks – I’ll just pick out SINISTER, TRIVIAL and DRIPPING.
Many thanks to Picaroon for the fun.
Tick, tick, tick – virtually all the way through. I love Picaroon’s misdirections where he leads you to think of one part of speech when the definition requires another. Yes BERMUDA TRIANGLE went straight in but the fodder is clever. Loi was the unparsed ICE CAP, as was UT for note – thanks to PeterO for explaining these – and for the amusing comment on TOUPEE. My favourite amongst many was DRIPPING – must be my northern roots – and PLUNDER was a close second. Great stuff – thanks Picaroon.
We crossed Eileen – thanks for pointing out Goliath/Philistine.
I’ll join the chorus – an excellent puzzle.
This very much a game of two halves – just look at the grid! BERMUDA TRIANGLE went straight in, so that was the half I finished first. The long answer in the top half didn’t yield straight away, so I built on the two crossers that the bottom half gave me instead.
I wondered about ‘bathroom’ in 1a, but I do hear that mainly North American usage more and more over here, where ‘toilet’ and ‘loo’ are much more common. (Who says ‘lavatory’ or ‘WC’ now?) TOUPEE was a great clue, as were several others highlighted already.
Thanks to Picaroon and PeterO.
Very enjoyable. Thanks to Picaroon. I really liked some of the ones already mentioned: 1a TOUPEE, 10a PISTOL, 12a ELONGATE (love the quirky way our setters’ minds work!), and 24a BERMUDA TRIANGLE, and I’d like to add 6d CARD SHARP. Appreciate the blog, PeterO.
Some easing up of restrictions here in Australia due to less COVID cases. Stats we are hearing from US and UK are terribly worrying – and the UK is third now in number of cases behind US and Italy. Thinking of the effects on the whole world but most particularly tonight (Aus time) of family and friends, and our crossword community.
Really clever wordplay from Picaroon – I love untangling his definitions. Got the north half very quickly and struggled with the south. DRIPPING a stand-out for me today.
I agree, lots of fun. TILT ut and ice. Many ticks and similar favs esp DRIPPING and the use of pointlessness for love. Thanks to Picaroon and to PeterO.
Well said Howard @9. Not much being said about the American crowdfunding firm which also profited!
All slipped in nicely today, though couldn’t parse PISTOL. Liked DOWNTURN and NESSIE…
I enjoyed that.
LOI 13d: teatray moment for “handles”.
Thanks to the 2Ps.
Thanks for the blog. NESSE is also a small North German town, but your parsing is undoubtedly the one intended.
O happy day! I came across UT the other day when trawling the archives – delighted to have found a use for it so soon 🙂 BERMUDA TRIANGLE was my FOI and now I have the Barry Manilow song stuck in my head.
To keep boredom at bay I\’ve been playing with some new software toys to analyse the Guardian cryptics – https://public.tableau.com/profile/bodycheetah#!
Now I can regale my lockdown partners with fun facts about which setter is the most frequent user of any given term in the clues or how often \”trump\” is used
TTFN – numbers to crunch 🙂
Cracking puzzle with lots of good clues. I had to look up Pip’s ideal but as she was hidden it was easy to solve.
I rather liked TOUPEE, TRIVIAL and LANTERN.
bodycheetah @30; thanks for that – I wouldn’t have guessed that Paul had overtaken Rufus for Guardian crosswords.
Thanks Picaroon and PeterO.
Bodycheetah @30. Loved this.
Lots to like with this one, as so often happens with this setter. Amongst a host of satisfying solves, TOUPEE, DRIPPING, ICE CAP, NOVELTY and ELONGATE stood out.
[And speaking of “gates”, or rather, the continued absence of any comeuppance for that dislikable character, hear-hear to Howard and Steveb: I’m getting sick and tired of British governmental figures treating the general public like small children, thinking they can distract us with a succession of jolly announcements and “gestures”, rather than properly funding and equipping courageous medical workers. That sort of thing may work with the tabloid press, but the vast majority of us are not fooled…]
Thanks to PeterO for help in completing the parsing of TRIVIAL, and a big thanks to Picaroon for the all-too-brief distraction from bad news and a bleak future.
Robi @ 31
Assuming that Bodycheetah only has access to the Guardian puzzle archive, it’s fair to say that Rufus had been setting for a long time before Paul’s debut in 1995, so I suspect his true tally is still the greater.
Thanks Picaroon and PeterO. An enjoyable solve though stuck a fair while in the SE till the ice cap melted… Thanks too to bodycheetah for the analytics. Makes me wonder (again) why so many of the Guardian setters’ names start with a P – 6 out of 17 of the most frequent setters – more than a third.
Sorry SW!
Bodycheetah@30 – brilliant graphics and an excellent distraction during the deluge happening here at the moment. I’ve not come across Public Tableau before – looks like an interesting resource. Thanks.
Simon S @34; good point!
Came here to find out how to parse POSTRE for 25 ac’s sweet dish, But answer came there none!
Lovely crossword, and thank you PeterO for a great blog, esp Air on a G String info.
And well said, Howard @ 9. 5000 local authority experts rejected by PHE, who insisted on using only their own measly 300 and so rapidly halted this useless contact tracing stuff.
bodycheetah @30 Thanks for the link. Most interesting. Not surprised to see Paul the most productive and, despite my occasional complaints, he’s kept the standard pretty high (or should that be low???). Someone over on the Telegraph blog site has maintained records of all the solutions and is occasionally able to report on how often, how recently and in what context particular answers have appeared before. If you have time on your hands during Coronavirus, surely a Guardian project worthy of your talents…
What Eileen said, except that I’m posting this comment after solving the Goliath
Thanks to Picaroon and PeterO
Mark @40
beeryhiker has a database of Guardian clues and solutions, so can tell us how often any solution has appeared, and what the clue was on each occasion.
I found this challenging despite a rare 1A FOI for me, so thank you PeterO for explaining a fair few partially or wholly unparsed answers. I think this was a gentler crossword than it could have been because, as TheZed noted above, a few of the more obscure/GK elements were clued in straightforward ways or helped by the grid/crossers, eg ESTELLA (never heard of her but easy to spot once I had the initial E and then A) and U-BOAT (equally unfamiliar with UT). My LOI was pistol which was a guess from crossers and that the definition was at the end (I have been tripped up before by arm = weapon) plus some vague image of Dick Turpin twirling a pistol. Maybe you already know this, but Wikipedia tells me that there were such things as “twister pistols” but not until the Regency era: too late for Dick, but close enough to make this my favourite surface and clue – thanks Picaroon for this and the rest, lots of fun.
muffin @42 Thanks for that. Deep down I had a feeling there might have been someone doing it for the Guardian but I couldn’t recall. I hope he has some cunning device that transfers and indexes the data effortlessly. A bit of an arduous undertaking, otherwise. But fascinating data. There are frequent observations here (some by me) on the reoccurrence of certain words and/or constructs.
Pretty much universal praise for this and I completely agree. I thought both long answers were very fine and although they went in quite quickly there was still plenty more to get ones teeth into. The SE held me up before the beautiful tea tray moment when DRIPPING, my COD, showed itself. Other favourites were TOUPEE – why do we love lavatorial humour so much? And, ELONGATE, Musk is another worrying character along with the others mentioned in dispatches today. So, many thanks to Picaroon for a great puzzle and PeterO for helping me with ICE CAP which I got but could not parse. A very good week so far I wonder who will be our setter tomorrow!
Howard@9 I totally agree And consider how many of those happy to give to this would object to a higher tax which would have possibly fulfilled that notorious bus advert!
Kudos to bodycheetah@30, that was great! Some may remember a few years ago I presented some analyses: an entropy-derived measure of how helpful setters’ crossers were, and the most frequent words used by us posters (thanks was top). If I do anything like that again I’ll have to follow bc’s lead and use graphics.
Regarding neologisms by analogy (12a). Watergate was not a scandal about water any more that a marathon is a prolonged mara or an alcoholic is addicted to alc. Just sayin’ !!!
DRIPPING is a kind of triple-def: it’s saturated, and fat, and saturated fat as well. Brilliant. Took me a while to remember UT, and PI for “dick”.
I never knew that the Air on a G String was a rearrangement and not directly composed by Bach. Don’t say you don’t learn things from crosswords!
In case you’re wondering, UT is an extremely useful Scrabble word. (Serious Scrabble players, of whom I am not one, have all of the legal two-letter words memorized.)
Well, I couldn’t agree more with Howard@9.I wonder how long the embattled NHS workers will remain as heroes for Johnson et al?
To the puzzle: ICE CAP was unparsed and it took me a while to see CLOSE UP. BERMUDA TRIANGLE was FOI and I liked TOUPEE and DRIPPING. Now there’s an unfortunate juxtaposition if ever I’ve seen one!
Didn’t finish yesterday’s Boatman until this morning,hence no post but I see there are over 100 posts so -!
Thanks Picaroon.
Dripping brought back memories of sandwiches my gran used to make for me.
Thank goodness for the “Check” button. For 2d I had E-BOAT, as TE around BOA. I’d completely forgotten my dad teaching me about “ut” about 40 years ago.
NeilH @ 17: I noted – and reveled in – the snark as well!
It sounds as if most everyone was like me and had the most trouble in the SW corner. I simply could not see the “cup” part of CLOSE-UP but I loved ICE CAP and PLUNDER. I only got them by staring at the clues for a very long time.
Oops! forgot to mention “sacking personnel extremely ready for operation” as the best Trump slam in the puzzle.
If there’s anyone from Tom Moore’s family (or even Tom himself) reading this, I do hope some of the comments above haven’t spoilt their day.
Bit hard on George Clements @6 too, to be slapped down like that by those who know so much better. George, I’m with you.
Lovely crossword.
Fine puzzle, well written as always. DRIPPING was very clever. Done before? Don’t know, but it was new to me. I immediately thought of CARD SHARK for 6, which is the phrase used round these parts, but the fodder corrected me.
It occurred to me that NICKNAMES might herald a theme, but all I can see is NESSIE.
Classy stuff. Thanks, Picaroon and PeterO. I needed the LOVE/pointlessness explanation. I had guessed it was from some famous quote.
Very enjoyable. I didn’t know about Ut, so that was something I learned today. My favourite was Elongate, which did actually make me LOL. Completely agree with what everyone here is saying about funding of NHS. But don’t people read the paper before or after doing the crossword? ICE has been in the news regularly, and daily at some points in the past year.
Very good, thanks Picaroon and PeterO.
DRIPPING was a great double def. The US Gestapo acronym was new to me.
I come here for people’s views on the crossword, not their political opinions even though I may agree with them. There is plenty of room for those on the Letters Page if the editor thinks them worth printing.
A delightful puzzle, beautifully clued with smooth surfaces.
Couldn’t get PISTOL and failed to parse ICECAP and UBOAT.
Bravo to the pirate! DRIPPING – fabulous!
I had some thoughts about Howard’s almost invariably critical contributions, but I’d better keep them to myself until he speaks again.
It seems a shame if Pino’s is left as the last comment on the mostly good-natured blog on this lovely puzzle. Personally I enjoy the mix of crossword comment and current affairs. I was another on who did not know ut was a note. At present I am doing crosswords early (I have just done Friday’s which mostly seemed remarkably easy), before the blog is published, and don’t get to read the blog until late, when commenting generally seems extraneous. Thanks to Picaron for this and to PeterO for the blog. And now to finish a sermon which because it cannot be preached on Sunday has to be ready to send out in a mailing on Friday…
Beobachterin @ 62
I’m sorry if my comment appeared ill- natured. It wasn’t intended as such whereas 9 and 12 certainly were and don’t, I think, have a place on this site
I too like the mix on this site.It is hardly surprising that many of us who read and post here will have views that broadly coincide with those of Howard.This does not preclude our civility to each other.Howard was in fact at pains to point out in his original post that he had no personal issue with the centenarian in question,but with his exploitation as a distraction from very real failings of government.
Mark @44 – I have only just seen your question. I wrote a program several years ago to download and extract the clues, and use a big spreadsheet to store the outputs, which is not hugely sophisticated but still makes simple searching very easy. I accidentally lost the source code, but fortunately the HTML format has not changed since, so I can still do the daily updates!
That probably accounts for about 95% of the list, but I found a few more by other means – most holiday specials were extracted from the blogs this site, and a lot of editing was required to tidy up the longer solutions from further back in the archive. I also found and corrected a few typos, but I am sure there are plenty more I have yet to spot. I even solved a few from PDF files where the archive had lost them. There are still another 12 to find due to mysterious gaps in the archive, the most recent two from 2006, and a number of the early ones are missing the setter credit.
Dick Johns@64
We’ll just have to disagree. The government has real failings but I don’t think that this site is the place to expose them.
I don’t start the crossword until after I have read the paperand I have had enough of the virus or whatever else has been the main topic over the years.
steveb@12
Irrespective of Tim Martin as a person the fact remains that he sells a range of good beers at well over £1 a pint less than any where else in my area, the pub is clean, and it has the best site in town by far.
All has been said about what a good puzzle this is. Thanks to Picaroon, and to PeterO for the parsing of 10a PISTOL. Loved the misdirection in 17d PLUNDER, a favourite along with 1a TOUPEE, 21a DOWNTURN and 13d NICKNAMES – and I loved the surface of 24a BERMUDA TRIANGLE.
My one (non-serious) quiblet is the personal insult in 11a – I don’t think my left-handedness renders me ugly.