Guardian Saturday Puzzle 28,135 / Picaroon

55 comments on “Guardian Saturday Puzzle 28,135 / Picaroon”

1. A pleasure to solve, as is usually the case with Picaroon. Nothing outlandishly difficult, but enough chewy clues to give a sense of accomplishment on completion, and lots of cleverness to admire. FRIENDS, NIGHTSTAND and FIFTH COLUMNISTS were among my favourites, along with the nicely disguised definitions for SANS SERIF and OPEC and the neat surface for NOSH. I wasn’t sure what “match” was doing in the clue for LACONIC and couldn’t parse CANTRAVENE beyond the raven (didn’t know about contes), but otherwise the wordplay was clear and fair. Thanks to the Pirate and to Eileen.

    

   As an aside, my home state moved to Phase 2 of reopening about two hours ago. My personal habits will remain in about Phase 0.01 for a while.

2. Thanks to Picaroon and Eileen. I much enjoyed FIFTH COLUMNISTS but struggled with TINAMOU  and DURUM.

3. Thanks Eileen. An enjoyable and not too taxing offering I thought though, at the risk of reigniting last week’s debate, I did have to seek confirmation from Google for 10, 15 and 16a. Never did quite see the relevance of ‘Match’ in 1a, the clue would have been quite adequate without it.

4. Thanks Eileen and of course Picaroon. We quickly spotted (The) Raven as Poe’s work but we don’t know what (a) conte is and quite find it online. Please advise?!
   We enjoyed Night Stand and Lughole and the ABBA reference was nice on Eurovision weekend. My surprise of the week was the definition of Laconic. I had always thought it was a perfect way to describe drawling speech or lanquid movement!

5. I thought this was quite straightforward for a “prize” – not easy, mind you, but also not unnecessarily convoluted or obscure.  Quite enjoyable.

   DaveinNC@1  I had thought about the Match in 1a and concluded that it is not required but makes for a better surface.  BTW I agree with your last comment, seeing as I’m also in NC.

6. Not as tricky as Picaroon can be, but well written.  FRIENDS and CANTATA were my favourites.  I think the French indicator of the LA in 1a is Paris Match (it being a French magazine), so I don’t see it as superfluous.

   Never heard of conte before or TISIPHONE, but it’s a very rare day indeed when I don’t look something up 🙂 .

   Thanks, Picaroon and Eileen.

7. joleroi@4 : conte is a short story (as a literary genre). I recommend onelook.com .
   Quality puzzle.
   Thanks Eileen an Picaroon.

8. Um, followup to my not-quite-finished explanation @5:  Paris Match is a magazine.

9. I did know conte but had forgotten about The Raven, so that was a nice rediscovery (popped straight up when searched, read a few verses; yes Eileen, it’s got great sound).

   Lots to enjoy here. Sans serif was great, as was Our Lady (though the image Madonna evoked wasn’t one from the great masters but the rather more blasphemous one of the singer, smoking a fag and in nothing but high heels, hitchhiking down Sunset Boulevarde, which my son has on the wall of his home gym!). Durum, meawhile, evoked the joke about the Pink Panther tune, and 19d reminded me of the Vicar of Dibley’s ‘blind man’ joke…think my locked down brain’s getting a touch of the hysterics.

   Here we’re in Stage 1 unlock…think I’ll go out for some fresh air and a coffee! Great Puzzle, many thanks P and E.

10. Thanks Eileen. LACONIC as everyone knows comes from Sparta (Lakon) and the Spartans’ legendary terseness. Always good to recall their answer to Philip of Macedon’s menacing message about destroying them if he invaded: “If.”

     

     

11. Less of a challenge than many prize – sorry, Saturday – puzzles, with two very helpful easy 15-letter clues down the middle (once I remembered how to spell ‘columnist’!), but very enjoyable. I didn’t know TISIPHONE or TINAMOU, but the clues were clear. I liked the way a piece of music was concealed in the CANTATA clue. I was confused by where ‘Match’ fitted in in 1a, but eventually decided, like, Dr WhatsOn that it wasn’t needed but improved the surface. Thanks to Picaroon and Eileen; unlock safely, everyone.

12. Enjoyable solve that was a little slow until the 4d & 5d went in (5d brought a smile!). Also had to look up TINAMOU and TISIPHONE and wondered about the need for ‘match’in 1a but thanks to others for explaining that. SANS SERIF probably my favourite, what a great midleading surface. Many thanks Picaroon and Eileen.

13. I did not know tinamou, so needed crossers to eliminate jamamou and canamou.  This took me two sittings. Cryptics are a great reminder that it is often better to put something aside than to keep battering away at it. I got stuck, went to the butcher, and, on approaching this from a slightly different angle, found what was previously impenetrable suddenly became obvious.

14. I think of CONTE as a French word and felt there should be some indication of the Paris Match type that French was being used. But it is there in Chambers as standard English now.

    I was not familiar with NIGHTSTAND (at least without ‘one’), and was put in mind of the Beatles’ Day Tripper – ‘she only plays one night stands’ – nor with TISIPHONE, so had to look that one up.

    Generally an interesting puzzle. Thanks Eileen and Picaroon.

15. Highly enjoyable puzzle, with fun surfaces and a few new words to learn – CONTE, TISIPHONE and TINAMOU. I enjoyed the references to placement in 5d and 27a too.

    When I finally figured out SANS SERIF, I wasn’t sure that ‘type’ was really a synonym for typeface.  Maybe it’s in Chambers? (I don’t have a copy).

    Thanks Eileen for clearing up a couple a didn’t parse, and Picaroon for an excellent puzzle.

     

16. Eileen said it all in her intro and topped it off with the blog with interesting links – the San Seriffe spoof is excellent. Others have then already highlighted my favourite clues so it just remains to thank them, Eileen and Picaroon of course.

17. I didn’t know CONTE, and just thought grumpily that it was conte(xt), short. Once I got 5D, I assumed that ‘subversives’ was maybe a clue to a theme before the penny dropped.

    Maybe I’ll reopen Tuesday’s discussion about CV being synonymous with career as was defended in a previous blog. To me, a good CV has more than one’s career and, likewise, the ‘course of one’s life’ also has a lot more in it than just your career – I’ve got that one of my chest now because I didn’t have the energy to argue this previously.

    I liked the topless one in the bath.

    Thanks Picaroon and Eileen.

18. Never sure if this is a Good Thing or a Bad Thing but, with 16 or so comments already up as I type, Picaroon doesn’t seem to have excited controversy today.  Apart from the ‘Match’ question (and it works for me).  I’d be surprised if we have many contributors today announcing their terminal frustration with Guardian clueing.  This was pretty much a master class.

    Others have already highlighted some of those I ticked, but I’d add a couple more where the simplicity and elegance of the clues deserves praise.  INDUSTRIAL, SECRETE, NOSH, SWEDE, OPEC…

    Eileen praised on of my two overall favourites – CANTATA is lovely – but my COTD is FRIENDS.  Very clever.  I wonder if it’s appeared before – if it isn’t an old chestnut, it might become one.

    Thanks Picaroon for a super test and Eileen for the excellent blog and spoof

19. molonglo @10 Not everyone!  New to me and thank you both for the explanation and the anecdote.

    DaveinNC @1 Apologies – I see I overlooked that you had singled out NOSH and OPEC too.  My memory clearly doesn’t stretch to 16 comments! And there’s me, trying to be good and take note of what everybody else has said before I post!

20. I had to get the list of furies to find tisiphone, and guessed tinamou with half the crossers in, but it seemed so unlikely it didn’t seem worth looking up. It was the right level for me.

21. I’m one of those who is getting tired of the repetitiveness of the more than 100 comments attracted during the week but it has just occurred to me that if repeats were excluded we Brits wouldn’t get a look in. As I generally don’t look at the crossword until 9.30pm I can only comment early on Saturdays.
    NIGHTSTAND is an Americanism.
    Repeat alert. This was fun and the two I didn’t know were fairly clued.
    Thanks to Picaroon and Eileen.

22. I was held up on 16a, as I had the fictitious TINMORU bird (MO=middle letters of faMOus, RU=game), but got the right answer when I solved ADUMBRATED.

    Picaroon is such a fair setter – his clue for TISIPHONE left no doubt as to what the answer was, which is as it should be for what to most people is a very obscure word. I appreciated also his question mark at the end of 27a, indicating that SE CRETE is not a name you’ll find on the atlas.

    I was unsure about the parsing of 20a, and when I read Eileen’s very helpful blog I thought immediately of CONTE as a French word, having never come across it in English, but having looked it up, the clue is fair (of course).

    Eileen’s mention of earworms reminds me that I had Diana Ross’s stunning vocal on Someday We’ll Be Together fixed in my head after solving 8d.

    Thanks to setter & blogger.

23. A very enjoyable puzzle.  16a TINAMOU was one of those great crossword moments when you work out the answer, think “Can there be such a word?”, look it up and there it is!  I also really liked 14a LANDAU and 6d INDUSTRIAL, both very neat.

    But my favourite was 5d FIFTH COLUMNISTS, very clever and inventive.  (“Fifth column” is not a phrase you hear much these days, but it was very prevalent in the early part of the Second World War with people having suspicions of possible Nazi sympathisers.  For anyone who doesn’t know, it originated in the Spanish Civil War when the fascist General Mola was attacking Madrid with four columns of troops, and he said that his fifth column was already in the city.)

    Many thanks Picaroon and Eileen.

24. Thanks Picaroon, Eileen
    Eileen, in 9a you haven’t accounted for the of, which goes with the indefinite number. Random ofs etc not typical of Picaroon, at least.

25. Did anyone else anticipate a bank holiday jumbo puzzle today?

26. Very pleasant indeed. Many thanks to Picaroon and Eileen
    (James@24 – strictly speaking, I think you’re right!)

27. James @24 it’s funny how often it’s one or two letter words that do stimulate queries. For me, the ‘of’ signalled that the definition – type – is the product of what follows. Alternatively, there is the ‘of’ in bloodlines indicating the offspring/mother relationship which would also serve as indicator, albeit somewhat obscurely.

28. Pino@21 – I cannot but agree. On the positive side, if we must share our space with a colonial chatroom – how uplifting that its members happen to enjoy cryptic Guardian crosswords! ?

29. Thank you, James @24 – amended now.

30. self @24 and James @24 My bad.  Just read the clue again and thought you were referring to the first ‘of’, rather than the second.  Doh moment.

31. Lovely puzzle as ever with Picaroon.  My favourites have all been mentioned so to prove I read the comments and to show I obey the new creed of no repetition, I will close by observing that (cliche alert) the ‘new normal’ for this site seems to be 100 comments plus.  Thanks to Picaroon for an admirable puzzle and to Eileen for the very helpful blog!!

32. Mark @ 18: yes, FRIENDS has been clued similarly before, as has INDUSTRIAL, but both are several years ago. I can’t remember the setter(s).

    Matthew @ 25: the G normally only gives BH Jumbos for Easter, Summer and Christmas.

33. Impeccable puzzle from Pickers.

    And many thanks to Eileen for the hilarious map of san serif. Hadnt seen it before

34. Thank you, Eileen, for the link to San Seriffe, which led me to the spaghetti harvest.

    here

    And thanks to Picaroon for a fine crossword.

35. Many thanks,  Auriga @34 – I was hoping someone would come up with that: I decided I’d strayed far enough from the matter in hand. 😉

    Spaghetti was a truly exotic food in those days: we only knew the Heinz tinned variety, in tomato sauce, which was served on toast – so much more sophisticated than baked beans. The fact that this spoof was screened on Panorama, presented by Richard Dimbleby, with all his customary gravitas, meant that we were completely taken in. It was perfect.

36. Auriga @34 and Eileen @35 Which, in turn, reminds me of the dehydrated water hoax one April 1.  To which one only needed to add water.  A potential boon for arid regions and lost travellers.  It was a long time ago – I seem to recall black and white footage including a flooded street with wrecked trucks when the water was “accidentally rehydrated”.  Haven’t been able to locate it on Google.

37. I once listened to a Radio 3 announcer introduce a piece of avaunt-garde music which was about to be given its world premier on Radio 3.  He went on with much pretension to tell us of the impressive twelve tone arch which the composer had created.and then in great detail told us about the instrumentation which involved massive orchestral forces and a full choir.  After some ten minutes of this he in total seriousness explained that the music finally disappeared up its own arch. There immediately followed one very loud dissonant chord ‘played’ by the full orchestra and choir.  The announcer then reported that we had just heard the world premier of…………..on this date 1st April 1974 or whatever.  Priceless, and I was completely taken in!!  .I doubt a recording still exists but if anyone can find it it is a classic.

38. Eileen @9a The blog doesn’t give the clues, but the puzzle does.  We can print that and then consult it as we read the blog.

    12a I never heard of a nightstand until the 80’s or so — I thought of it as a bedside table.

    I can usually name at least some of the muses, especially of course Erato, the muse of crosswords, but the furies are on the other side of the garden wall.  Looking them up, I found that they were among the “chthonic gods,” meaning deities of the underworld.  That world always reminds me of a story I read once about students using the thesaurus to find words for essays without having a feel of how anybody actually uses them, and someone writing about gardening saying, “My hands were chthonic,” meaning “covered with earth.”

    Anybody else hearing “Your baby ‘as gone dahn the plug’ole”?

39. Eileen @ 35 thank you for posting the link to the Guardian April Fool spoof – i am far from being too young to remember (indeed i remember watching the spaghetti harvest) but i have no recollection of it. You are right, it is glorious and i have forwarded the link to family in this country, Canada and Australia – it should lift their spirits, although both Canada and Australia are faring rather better than we are. Did you notice that the currency of San Seriffe is the corona?

    Thank you also for a (yet another) brilliant blog and thanks to Picaroon for an excellent puzzle which i completed apart from 19 down – lughole – a laugh-out-loud moment when i read the blog

40. SPanza @37 – I couldn’t find any reference to the music you describe [hilarious] but, being a choir member, you might like #74 here

    Valentine @38 – that’s why I gave the puzzle reference, too. I remember being mildly surprised when bloggers began supplying the clues – why would anyone need those when they had the puzzle in front of them?  – but I soon realised how handy it was, For instance, I’ve managed to interest several people in cryptic crosswords by inviting them to read through a few 15² blogs, to get a taste of how they work and then go on from there – and it certainly makes looking up the archive a lot easier.

    David @39 – I was disappointed that the link I gave showed only the front page. I have just found this, which reproduces all seven pages and shows just how detailed and brilliant the spoof was – including the adverts! You need to keep scrolling down to get a more legible version!

     

41. SPanza@37
    There was a one chord piece in one of the Hoffnung concerts but it may not be the one you were thinking of.
    Valentine@38, me@21
    I first came across NIGHTSTAND when solving a similar clue in 27,356 by Screw in November 2017. I commented then that it wasn’t in my Chambers and that Wikipedia gave it as an Americanism. This doesn’t detract from what is an amusing clue as it was the first time.

42. Thanks Picaroon and Eileen for a fun afternoon.
    Eileen: Did you notice that Puck’s April Fool’s puzzle included a clue for ON-USER, parsed exactly as in Picaroon’s 17d?

43. Myself@42: NON-USER, OC course.

44. Pino

    Many thanks for that – another trip down Memory Lane.

    I see that my comment on that puzzle [of which I have no recollection – I loved Screw’s puzzles  but we haven’t seen him for ages] was, ‘I have what I call bedside cabinets but I’d no idea they were known as NIGHTSTANDS’ – which proves, once again, as we all know for a fact, that while I can quote most of Hamlet’s soliloquies and Keats’ Odes, learned many decades ago in A level English, my brain is now reluctant to retain such a lot of more recent information.

    [Screw’s clue was pretty good, too: Joined item in bedroom – it won’t happen again! (3-5,5)]

    Cellomaniac @42/3 – I’ve just caught your comment before posting. I’ll be back in a minute or two!

45. Pino @41 (& Spanza @37) I think that must be the famous excerpt from Belshazzar’s Feast, introduced by Mr T.E. Bean CBE here. A bit different but very funny nevertheless.

46. I am another one who liked this crossword very much.
    Actually, I cannot remember a Picaroon puzzle that I didn’t enjoy.

    The clue for 16ac (TINAMOU) reveals the hand of an excellent setter, one who is aware of the ‘obscurity’ of the answer.
    And so, he made the clue as simple as possible! As it should be.

    I am a bit surprised that nobody thus far made a remark about the position of 5d.
    [or I must have overlooked it]
    The answer to this clue is found in the 9th column, isn’t it?
    Yes, it is the 5th column in which this particular grid contains ‘words’ but even so.
    In the end I am OK with it – don’t worry, I won’t spoil the party – but it could have been even neater.

    Many thanks to Eileen & Picaroon.

47. Hi Cellomaniac  –

    Thanks  so much for that – icing on the cake with a cherry on top. I was leaving revisiting Puck’s puzzle for a treat tomorrow …

    …wow! Parsed exactly the same, clued slightly differently [New nurse keeps working to get one off drugs].

    One of those digressions which I hope are more excusable on a Saturday and which I might well not have had time for on a weekday blog: Picaroon’s SANS SERIF set me off irresistibly on the [irrelevant] Sans Serriffe trail, which led me via Wikipedia to the [unremembered] Puck puzzle, which I’m now looking forward to solving. Pure Serendipity – I love that word].  So – two of my favourite setters combined, quite accidentally, in a great solve!

48. A moment of pedantry, Eileen, and one which may help Donald@15: Sans Serif is not a typeface but a description of a whole family of typefaces: those without Serifs, as opposed to those with. This note, for example, is written in a Sans Serif face. Type is the generic word for all typefaces. Nice one Picaroon.

49. I had to miss this crossword, unfortunately, despite having received a recommendation to try it, but I wanted to come here to say what a delight it was to read the blog.

    As many of you will probably agree, the tone of some recent blogs made it difficult to engage properly in ordinary, good-natured dicussions while fraught and repetitive debates dominated the space.

    It is a relief, and more, to read all the contributions here, and I’d like to highlight (at random, almost) two light-hearted snippets that caught my eye: Mark’s comment @19 about ‘trying to be good’ and pino’s @21 with his ‘repeat alert’.

    It was asked recently ‘where have all the ladies gone?’ It is a fact that Female solvers of crosswords like these are in a minority anyway (outnumbered nearly 4 to 1 by males, according to a 2016 research study), and I venture to say that the kind of exchanges we have seen recently had the predictable effect that prompted the question.

    Thanks to all, from Eileen onwards, for your contributions to what made this blog a thumping good read – helped, of course, by what I see was a thumping good crossword. I hope this kind of blog can be emulated again and again. and if that happens I hope to see valued ex-contributors return.

50. I remain on the lookout for opportunities to use the wonderful ADUMBRATE in my daily life. Also was delighted to find that LACONIC means brief as I’d always thought it meant laid back but luckily linguistic faux Pas had been avoided. Thanks Eileen for a great blog and Pickers for the workout

51. Yes, I agree with Sil@46 about the ninth column, which rather spoiled the clue for me.

    joleroi@4: Googling conte gives stacks of uninteresting info about football managers, but conte short story leads to the desired result. I had not heard of it either.

     

    Thanks P and E

52. Thanks to Eileen and Picaroon

    I can only see \”heart of famous\” as \”mo\”, but otherwise great stuff.

    3d It took a while to separate the elements in 3d – very nice.

53. Only 52 comments for the best puzzle of the last two weeks? Strong competition gor that too.
    Re holiday specials, neither May bank holiday has had one for as long as I can remember, but people still ask the same question every time. Just remember Easter, August and Christmas – three a year.

    Thanks to Picaroon and Eileen.

54. Many thanks to everyone taking the trouble to comment, and especial thanks to Eileen for her customarily generous and erudite blog.

55. New words for me:  TINAMOU, TISIPHONE

    I could not parse 1a LACONIC

    Thanks, Picaroon and Eileen.

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