Guardian 28,319 – Philistine

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I enjoyed this, despite there being two clues I can’t parse, one that I think is faulty, and another that seems unfair. No doubt I will soon be enlightened on the first two, and perhaps put right on the third. Thanks to Philistine.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
1,28. HUNDRED-YEAR-OLD Like the Duke of Edinburgh, soon had deer roundly shot (7-4-3)
(HAD DEER ROUNDLY)* – well, soonish: the Duke of Edinburgh’s hundredth birthday will be 10 June 2021
5,19,15. SELLING COAL TO NEWCASTLE I note all clogs designed with cleats may be an exercise in futility (7,4,2,9)
Presumably intended as an anagram of I NOTE ALL CLOGS + CLEATS, but this is lacking the letters NEW: should the clue have read “…designed with new cleats…”? I only know this expression as “sending/carrying coals to Newcastle”, but it seems that other versions exist
9. TWANG Want reform before midnight, in a manner of speaking (5)
WANT* + the middle letter of niGht
10. EX OFFICIO Due to position, previous lover gone and nice Dior clothing disappeared (2,7)
EX (previous lover) + OFF (gone) + “unclothed” [n]IC[e] [d]IO[r]
11. INCOMPLETE Partial earnings, please, must be included (10)
We have INCOME for “earnings”, but I’m not sure where the PLET comes from, except possibly as part of PLEase musT
12,21. DOGSBODY Lackey of dodgy boss, mostly awful (8)
Anagram of DODGY BOS[S]
14. NON SEQUITUR Either he’s dead or my watch has stopped? Awkward question: run with it! (3,8)
(QUESTION RUN)* The non-sequitur given as an exanple is a line spoken by Groucho’s character in the Marx Brothers’ A Day at the Races
18. STATESWOMAN An American politician? (11)
Double definition
22. LAST RESORT One way to get salt when all else fails (4,6)
To get SALT you can RE-SORT the letters of LAST
25. LOVE BITES Evidence of passion from Elvis to be reviewed (4,5)
(ELVIS TO BE)*
26. UNLIT 1 across the origin of light and dark (5)
L[ight] with UNLIT around or “across” it. A nice double misdirection in the apparent reference to the clue 1 across
27. ENSNARE Trap set in earnest, leave it out (7)
Anagram of IN EARNEST less IT
Down
1. HATPIN Paint brush finally adapted into a device holding pillbox in place (6)
Anagram of PAINT + [brus]H – a pillbox is a kind of hat
2. NUANCE Subtlety shown by woman of faith taking over a church (6)
A in NUN + CE (Church of England)
3. REGIMENTED Socialist hosts meeting that’s organised and strictly regulated (10)
MEETING* in RED
4. DWELL Live broadcast centre source (5)
Middle letter of broaDcast + WELL (a source)
5. SHORT-TERM Temporary abbreviation? (5-4)
An abbreviation is a SHORT TERM for something
6. LOFT Left frequently in the attic (4)
L + OFT
7. INCHOATE Chocolate after Colin passes out is elementary (8)
Another one I can’t fully parse: there’s CHOCOLATE less COL, but I can’t see how the IN gets added, even if it comes from colIN
8. GLOSSARY Choice of words used by Lineker when admitting defeat (8)
LOSS in GARY (Lineker, footballer)
13. JUAN DE FUCA With a plate he can certainly make the earth move (4,2,4)
A reference to the Juan de Fuca Plate, named after a 16th-century Greek maritime pilot. Rather unfair to clue this with no wordplay for anyone who, like me, didn’t know the name
16. ISABELLE She asks what might be necessary on a bicycle (8)
Homophone of “is a bell”, as in the old knock-knock joke
17. MALDIVES Islands emphatically shut up about what some people do there (8)
DIVE (what a lot of people do in the Maldives) in reverse of SLAM (emphatically shut)
20. AT STUD Art student undressed on vacation, ready to breed (2,4)
A[r]T S[tuden]T U[ndresse]D – the words are “vacated”
23. TASTY The asparagus served to you for starters is delicious (5)
First letters of The Asparagus Served To You
24. ABBA Part of sabbatical group (4)
Hidden in sABBAtical

109 comments on “Guardian 28,319 – Philistine”

  1. I didn’t think that it was selling coal to Newcastle that was futile, it was carrying coals to Newcastle, because you wouldn’t be able to sell them. Selling coal to Newcastle, like selling sand to Arabs, would be something difficult, requiring great salesmanship. Isn’t that a bit different?

    Out of the blue horizon
    Stretched a band of gold
    From the straits of JUAN DE FUCA
    To the east of Portland, Maine

    Two for the Road, Nanci Griffith

    Thanks Philistine and Andrew

  2. I think the trick for NEWCASTLE in 5 is that CLEATS isn’t part of the anagram, rather that it is equivalent to NEW CASTLE, a it like the reverse clue in LAST RESORT from ‘one way to get salt’.

  5. A bit more accessible from Philistine I thought, today, although I confess to looking up JUAN DE FUCA.

    Agree with Andrew’s comments on the unparseables – I can almost see how to get to INCHOATE, but it doesn’t seem to be quite there. Thought STATESWOMAN was a bit insipid all round.

    But I enjoyed ISABELLE, SHORT TERM and EX OFFICIO, which were well worth the price of entry.

  7. Thanks Philistine, I found the same clues as you puzzling. I got Juan de Fuca by guessing and googling “Juan de”, and even then I wasn’t certain. He seems a rather obscure character to be clued without wordplay, and the reference too continental plates moving is also very vague.

    Otherwise a fun crossword.

  8. Thanks Philistine and Andrew. I think for 26a you mean UNIT across L. (Thank you Penfold for the quote from the wonderful Nanci Griffith). I did think it was futile to take coals to Newcastle because there’s plenty already there (or at least there was.)

  10. If that actually is the parsing for SELLING COALS TO NEWCASTLE, then I find it completely unsporting. But I’d expect no less from Philistine

    @Shirl – yes that seems correct for INCHOATE.

  13. INCHOATE is COLIN CHOCOLATE minus the two COLs

    Quite a quick start to the day, apart from JUAN DE FUCA. Didn’t get this, so it was a DNF for me, I’m afraid. Echo the sentiments of unfairness, no word-play etc etc.

    Thanks Philistine and Andrew

  16. Well done Shirl for parsing INCHOATE, which is quite a clever clue upon review. I also googled JUAN DE, (well you either know it….) I liked GLOSSARY and UNLIT and thought there were two Ninas in the SW corner TOON and TYNE to link with NEWCASTLE but misread TYEN in my hopeless excitement. On the easier side for Philistine but some great surfaces. Thanks both.

  19. Thanks very much Andrew for clearing up UNLIT and the exact parsing of AT STUD where I got into trouble undressing and then vacating things, though the answer in each case was clear. Not so Juan de Fuca and I would be very annoyed if I had been solving this in a google-free zone on some desert island while sipping a cocktail. On the other hand the ref to one of my favourite Marx Bros films, and the very timely ISABELLE with crackers due to be pulled barely a week away, more than make up for it. Thanks to earlier posters for clarifying INCHOATE which I nearly understood, and I share the mild disapproval re SELLING coals to Newcastle.
    Re INCOMPLETE, can we have P = please and LET=”Must” or “Must be” somehow? Although i am not convinced myself. Let it be known that… – It must be that… – maybe not.
    Thanks Philistine, I liked UNLIT and INCHOATE most now that I understand them!

  21. All good fun apart from JUAN DE FUCA, which was pretty impossible – never heard of him. I liked EX OFFICIO, MALDIVES and INCHOATE in particular. Didn’t get round to parsing INCHOATE, but it had to be right. Many thanks to P & A.

  22. Completed with 3 unparsed, but with explanations 5,19,15 and 7 are revealed as excellent. Still not sure about 11! And Juan de Fuca? Thanks s & b.

  23. That was weird – some very obvious clues and other total headscratchers. JUAN DE FUCA was in the brain somewhere but took quite a bit of thinking about.

    Not that happy about 5a as that appears to be a total mixup of several expressions – I’ve always thought it SENDING COALS TO NEWCASTLE with the SELLING variant for sand as Penfold @1 states.

    On-the-whole an average-paced solve needing a little help but good Thursday fun!

    Thanks Philistine and Andrew.

  25. Very proud of myself to have parsed 7dn (removing two COLs) and 11ac (the P + LET) is lovely. Did not parse 26ac so thanks Andrew. I agree with the unfairness of Juan de Fuca which I had to google. Favourites were 20dn and 11ac. Thanks Philistine

  29. Game of two halves? Before and after sleep!
    Struggled to get my target of 5 answered before sleep, woke with the same problem for the next 5!
    I then got INCHOATE by trial and error (enter one letter at a time and check it) and got the missing letters, in order, perfectly! Never imagined that is a word, but from there I flew!

    One reveal (the F in Juan de fuca) ruined it for me, my reaction was I hoped “Juan de” translates to “I am a” in some (bad) language or other :O)

    That clue plus the two latin answers are a bit demoralising for someone who did not do Latin at school.
    But the latin answers were 2 of my 5 last night?

    Got the g from midnight – things are looking up for – 20 minutes to do all but 5 clues was wonderful for me.
    Thans Philistine and thanks Andrew for having the same parsing problems that I had.

    On Colin, I decided it was the computer instruction for “exclusive or” – so remove letters than are in “chocolate” but add those that are missing? COL disappears and IN is added.

    But I could not see how XOR was being implied! The “cols for passes” idea is clearly right but I give myself a brownie point for XOR

  33. Thanks for the blog, Andrew – I’m glad it wasn’t my turn!

    Not long ago, I said I was pretty well used to the P/LET device by now but I was well and truly stymied by it today – many thanks, James. I didn’t manage to sort the NEW CLEATS (even with the handy hint from LAST RESORT) either but I did eventually get there with INCHOATE, which was one of my favourites.

    Others were TWANG, NON SEQUITUR, NUANCE, GLOSSARY and UNLIT.

    I share the reservations about 13dn.

    Apart from that, lots of fun, so many thanks to Philistine.

  34. I think 16d is a little iffy too, in that the spelling could also be ISOBELLE and the crossers do not clarify. Unless I’m mis-parsing.

  35. Thanks everyone for parsing INCHOATE, INCOMPLETE and the NEWCASTLE bit of the long one. I know the phrase as “taking coals to Newcastle” or just “coals to Newcastle” as a description of something surplus to requirements. I sort of got the reference to tectonic plates, but not that specific one, so 13 was a NHO.

  36. pnin @30: the earth moving is a reference to the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate, rather than anything Pauline. Or maybe I don’t have a dirty enough mind.

  38. Martin @36 & pnin @30: I think it works in an ultra Pauline way if Juan de = Wonder. Or maybe I am stretching homophones to breaking point here.

  39. Quite like a bit of bawd but the [Don] Juan possibility didn’t ring, too busy going ‘What the…’ . Otherwise quite fun, with the same ?s as Andrew and others. Got the new cleats* but selling?…forgiveable I spose. Too lazy to do more than bung inchoate, and didn’t twig p let, so bit of a slack effort before a long lunch. Hey ho, thanks both.

  40. Can someone please explain the please /p let device?

    Other than that it was an unsatisfying puzzle today, particularly JUAN DE FUCA, which in my view should have involved some wordplay in order to make it attainable to those of us who have never heard of him!

  41. I probably could have got 13d by googling “tectonic plates” but I wasn’t in the mood for a quiz with hardly any cryptic element. The rest of the puzzle was very enjoyable, though I had the usual parsing problems.

  42. it’s p + lease = p + let. Also I think Fiery Jack @31 is right, Juan de Fuca = “Wonder-Fucker” (though I was only familiar with the second).

  44. Doesn’t the ‘two Colins’ parsing mean Colin is doing double-duty? I thought this might have meant COL is IN CHOATE to give chocolate, and if you remove him you’re left just with INCHOATE (?)

    I thought this was a bit too clever-clever in parts. I agree with Andrew that a cryptic description for JUAN DE FUCA (who?) was rather unfair. I guess the PLET must have been P/LET as noted above. Some other very fine clues, though.

    From Wiki: ‘Selling, carrying, bringing, or taking coal(s) to Newcastle is an idiom.’ I guess that means Philistine is off the hook.

    Thanks Philistine and Andrew.

  45. Liked SELLING COAL TO NEWCASTLE, LAST RESORT, MALDIVES
    New: Lineker, Gary; JUAN DE FUCA
    Guessed/solved but did not parse INCOMPLETE, INCHOATE (got the chocolate bit, but IN comes from what?), non sequitur (saw the anagram but did not know the Marx Bros ref), JUAN DE FUCA.
    Thanks, Andrew and others for the parsings, as well as Philistine.

  51. Delighted to have spotted the two cols and the new castle, but missed p-lease, unit and never heard of JUAN DE FUCA, nor did I know the reference in 14a. I also disliked the Duke’s next birthday being anticipated. However there was a lot to like so thanks to Philistine, Andrew and everyone else who contributed clarifications.

  55. John de SB @ 53

    Yes, that has been established now.
    Most distasteful. But I suppose that language passes for acceptable in the Guardian these days.

    And I was trying to be so restrained in my criticisms today, too …..

  56. Another cracker from my favourite setter. If 13d is a homophone then my admiration for Philistine goes even higher. Since I was not thinking along those lines this was a DNF. I loved the Knock Knock joke; (those here who bore us with puns might move on to Knock Knocks). There was a bit of Pauline humour with LOVE BITES which raised a smile. But my favourite was NON SEQUITUR which coming from a medic was all the more enjoyable. Many thanks Philistine and Andrew, and to all the contributors who helped!!

  57. Anna @ 55 and others on 13d. It is not established that Philistine was thinking along those lines. So the fault, if fault there is, lies with those of us who are now speculating. In any case it is only a crossword!!

  58. [JSB @53: If you are the same JSB as FB tells then we went to the same school at about the same time. That probably explains why we read into 13d what we read into 13 – you can take the boy out of Essex but…]

  59. Thanks everyone for my 3 missing parsings.

    The misdirect of ‘1 across’ in the UNLIT clue is brilliant but not wild about the Newcastle clue as I think the saying is just wrong.

    Still don’t quite understand the p + let part of INCOMPLETE. Anyone?

    Nice, off-beat stuff today, many thanks Philistine.

  60. Anna @55. I’m with you on that. (Were you wagging your finger? I think maybe you were.) And if it was intended by the setter, why is there no homophone indicator, or at least a question mark to indicate dubiety?

  61. Hi William @59

    It’s pretty devious! – but it is one of Philistine’s trademark clues.

    The first one of these clues I came across was (Games of shaven swine, 5) in a puzzle I blogged and I had to ask for help. The answer is SPORT: S port gives S haven and S wine. A similar one was ‘Stop and chat, 5’ for SPEAK: S top = S peak.

    In this one, you have P let = P lease.

  62. William @59. Split the P off ‘please’. That leaves lease. To lease a house is to let it. Now put the P back on the front of ‘let’. Voila PLET!

  66. Hatter @ 60

    Ah the finger !! I forgot the finger.
    It’s being firmly wagged now 🙂

    Seriously though, I do sometimes wonder at the language which is tolerated in comments on the Guardian site.

  67. [Anna @66. I think there is a tendency for people writing on message boards and forums to type as they would speak; for example over a beer with mates in the pub. In that situation a small lapse into inappropriate language can be easily missed, ignored, forgiven or apologised for. On here, and on the Guardian comment sections below the line, what you type is there forever – unless it’s so bad that a moderator deletes it. When I’m typing I always go back and read what I have written, both to make sure it makes sense and to make certain it couldn’t possibly give offence. The evident glee with which some people have greeted the bawdy and gross mispronunciation of Juan de Fuca might yet embarrass them.]

  68. [Anna @66: “Intelligent people are more likely to swear, study shows” https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/swearing-study-intelligent-intelligence-university-rochester-a7916516.html

    This is the bit I love: “Those with higher intellects were found to be more likely to curse, eat spicy breakfasts, and walk around the house naked.” All at the same time? The source of the study goes on to say something about messy desks which I am now going to dine out on (not that we are allowed to do that in Tier 3 Land, of course).

    The only time it bothers me is when there are children around but I do feel we’ve over child-ised much of life (children’s menus in restaurants are the things I object to most – nothing wrong with children eating the same as their parents just in an appropriate size).

    It’s a rich language – I like to use all of it!]

  70. 13d was one of my last in: I figured it was summat to do with tectonic plates but, knowing next to nothing on the subject, eventually had to give in and consult the great god google. Seconds later my partner glanced over my shoulder and declared he’d never heard of it – and he’s a geophysicist! Then again, reading the comments from Blaise at 24 & Tomsdad at 26 made my grump immediately disappear. I’m going to assume this was deliberate homophone on Philistine’s part.
    And I’ll also forgive him the “selling” coal to Newcastle mistake. (The expression is sending, taking, or carrying; in the days when Britain had a thriving coal industry, Newcastle had no need of more, hence “wasted effort”. “Selling” coal to Newcastle would be phenomenally difficult, rather than a waste. Hey ho)
    EX OFFICIO and LAST RESORT were very neat, ISABELLE made me grin – and big thanks to all for the help with that pesky second COL in INCHOATE.
    Thanks to Andrew for the blog, and to Philistine for the mental workout

  71. like coals to Newcastle – I’m from the North east and the the phrase was always “like selling coals to Newcastle” haven’t ever heard the others. now live in Australia and my oz friends get most indignant when I tell them it isn’t an Australian saying (Newcastle being the major coal port for the hunter valley coalfields)

    enjoyed the crossword today apart from 13dn. but for that it would have been the first time I’ve ever completed two guardian cryptics in a row

  72. Something of a mixed bag for me, this one. I thought 14a was a wonderful clue; also liked 8d and 7d once the latter’s construction had been clarified – thank you, Shirl @4.

    Like some other commenters, I always thought the phrase was “carrying coals to Newcastle” but I expect there will be some regional variations. In 9a I wouldn’t consider “midnight” the same as “middle of night”, but okay: this is the Guardian. Nor am I a fan of the PLET device in 11a, but okay …

    Finally, and at the risk of sounding silly, I’m afraid I don’t have a good feeling about 1a/28a. Technically the clue is fine and the surface reading excellent, but – and I say this as someone who would be quite happy to see the monarchy as an institution abolished tomorrow – the Duke is an old man and 10th June 2021 is still some distance away. Sorry, I won’t develop this line of thought any further but somehow felt compelled to say what I have. I suppose I’m just too sensitive, or superstitious, or both.

    Thanks to Philistine and Andrew.

  73. Re 5,9,15: “Timothy Dexter, an American entrepreneur, succeeded in defying the idiom in the eighteenth century. Renowned for his eccentricity and widely regarded as a buffoon, he was persuaded to sail a shipment of coal to Newcastle by rival merchants plotting to ruin him. However, he instead yielded a large profit after his cargo arrived during a miners’ strike which had crippled local production.” (See https://enacademic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/6291695#cite_note-ne_history-1) I also was not familiar with the “selling” version of this phrase, but it seems it has justification.

  74. Hi Eileen @61: (The post number, no age reference) Fiendish, however did you spot that first time around? I wonder if I will next time…hmm?

  75. MaidenBartok @68: I’ve decided therefore that I’m moderately bright, having scored 2 out of 3. (Only toast for breakfast.)

  76. Tackled this late as I’ve been trying to get hold of someone to get our central heating boiler going again this morning. But a hot streak saw me fly through this with lots of ticks on the way before I stared at 13d at the very end without any idea of who it might be, so had to look him up…

  77. [William @75: I just bought a jar of pickled Jalapenos to have with my Chicken Tikka Massala and coffee tomorrow morning :-)]

  78. gofirstmate @72. I don’t think mid=middle of is just Guardian crossword looseness. Have a look at ‘mid’ in your dictionary: midday, midpoint, midship, midweek. All of them mean the middle part of the concept in the second part. In crossword land, this equates to the middle part of the word representing that concept. Surely it’s not just the Guardian crossword where this is firmly established?

    I join you in applauding NON-SEQUITOR. I can remember being taught by my mother what this meant, after she had used it. I’m pretty sure it had nothing to do with Groucho Marx at the time (more likely me trying to get out of doing the washing up), but the use of the line in this clue is hilarious.

  79. Well, like it or not (I liked it), you can’t call this puzzle boring. There were several clues (all mentioned above) where there was an extra layer of solving, which is something that appeals to me a lot. I happened to be on form when I finished it in almost record time last night, which helped, but I understand it was not to everybody’s taste.

  80. I knew JUAN DE FUCA’s Straits, but not his plates. So I plunked it in (it fit) but had no idea why. [The Straits–the stretch of water between the Olympic Peninsula and Vancover Island, thus the entrance to Puget Sound–is one of our more beautiful places (I’ve been there while still a teenager, but the memory hasn’t faded, possibly because I was in a 15-foot motorboat).] The pun suggestion is funny, but of course that’s a long U.

    Of the three extra-clever clues, I got the NEWCASTLE trick, but not the ones in INCHOATE or INCOMPLETE. Which I guess means that my solve of this puzzle was both those things. Thanks for parsing.

  81. Andrew, in the clue for UNLIT it’s UNIT (“one”), not UNLIT, that’s across L.

    11a Like mrpenney, I’d heard of Juan de Fuca but not of his plate, only of his strait. So I put the name in but couldn’t parse it — I know it from visits to BC in the last century. There aren’t any straits east of Portland Maine until you get to Gibraltar.

    The fact that nobody on this site has mentioned the straits brings to mind that although we have plenty of colonial participation in the US and Australia, there seem to be no Canadians. Oh, Canada, am I wrong?

  83. I did unusually well here, but didn’t get 13D and agree it’s rather unfair. Also failed to get 26A – not unreasonable, but I’d never think of ‘1’ as ‘UNIT’. I had the wordplay figured out, just couldn’t get it working!

    While I got 1A, I thought that was also quite unfair as he’s not yet 100.

  84. Valentine @81 I don’t think that Nanci is suggesting that the strait lies to the east of Portland, Maine. Rather, her band of gold stretches right across from the Strait of JdF in the west, to Portland, Maine in the east.

  85. I found this puzzle easier to solve than many, with the one exception of JUAN DE FUCA, for which I had to cheat. For what it’s worth, I find the homophone theory utterly implausible, not least because there’s no homophone indicator. It’s just a cryptic definition, and quite an unfair one too (in my opinion, although that opinion is evidently shared).

    Speaking of homophones, it seems to me that the one in 16dn (ISABELLE) is inadequately indicated. I suppose it’s supposed to be contained in “asks”, but since asking can be done in writing just as easily as in speech this doesn’t seem sufficient to me.

    I needed help parsing INCHOATE, but now that I understand it I like it a great deal. I also particularly enjoyed the “1 across” misdirection in 26ac.

  86. Thusfar this has been my favourite crossword of the week and LAST RESORT has been my favourite clue of the month. AT STUD had a perfect surface and I also enjoyed EX OFFICIO. I missed the silly ISABELLE as well as JUAN DE FUCA but I don’t feel bad about either. Thanks Philistine for the fun and to Andrew (and the blog) for helping me understand some of the parsing, especially the very clever INCHOATE and cleats being NEWCASTLE.

  87. Started this for just a couple clues before bedtime (it posts on Wednesday night here) and wound up finishing it, at the cost of a little sleep. Thanks Philistine and Andrew, and the commenters for help parsing 7d and 11ac.

    I’d defend “selling” coals to Newcastle as an exercise in futility. Perhaps taking coals to Newcastle is pointless but not futile–you can succeed in taking them there, but trying to sell them is futile. I could see both sides of this. 4d and 26ac I particularly liked.

    I used the reveal for 13d, figuring it was some wordplay I wouldn’t get, as indeed it was. Maybe Philistine has been reading about the Cascadia Subduction Zone, as if we don’t have enough things to worry about?

  88. What fun! Completed all, which felt good after 2 days of stumbles/falls… and parsed all but P/LET, getting great pleasure fr/col & new-castle. Much else to like too, e.g. STATESWOMAN for the nod (intentional or not) to the VP-elect over here (about time), and TASTY for refrshingly integral use of “starters” in the surface. COTD: INCHOATE… so creative!

    Empathize w/others here re 13d… no doubt akin to how I felt during my major fail yesterday. Today, was fortunate… the JDF plate causes earthquakes & tsunami warnings on the US west coast (and volcanism in the Cascades) so is occasionally in the news.

    [ The JDF plate also links with my plant nerdiness, being a remnant of the Farallon plate that once spanned North America’s west coast and spawned California’s diverse geology (incl the Sierra Nevada) from which so much plant diversity derives. FYI, another remnant is the Cocos plate, responsible for earthquakes/volcanism in Central America. ]

    Thx to Philistine for the great fun, and to Andrew & commenters for the enjoyable blog/discussion.

  89. A little point of pedantry: a pass is not necessarily across a col, and the presence of a col does not always indicate the presence of a pass. A pass has to be (or have been) in use by people to get from A to B. Typically it will cross a col (the low point between two hills) as people don’t want to ascend higher than necessary. To cross some cols, though, would involve serious mountaineering; Everest’s South Col is a well known example. It is not a pass in the normal sense of the word.

    Good enough for a crossword puzzle though.

  91. sheffield hatter @60
    I would suggest the reason the pun is not made explicit is so that the editor/setter can hold up their hands in mock amazement and claim it’s all in our fervid little imaginations. It’s a bit like Tramp saying all his models are male.
    Ted @85, the homophone theory is unfortunately the only one that explains the weird clue, and presumably the reason for including it as a solution – it’s certainly not there as an emergency gridfiller.

  92. James @91 — I disagree that the homophone theory is the only explanation for 13dn. I plump for the utterly straightforward theory: it’s a cryptic definition. I’m not claiming it’s a good one, but merely that it is one.

  93. Hi Monkey @89

    Col = pass has been a crossword standard for the decades I’ve been solving, so it has never occurred to me to look it up – but thanks for confirming, Simon @90.

  94. James @91. I wrote a reply to your point about Tramps’s Tuesday puzzle, but on reflection I’ve moved it to General Discussion.

  95. I concur with Ted @92 (and those of similar mindset)… the homophonic (homoiophonic?) take discussed here would never have occurred to me before reading the blog (and seems entirely out of keeping with the rest of the puzzle). To me, if anything, it read as a play on the classic quip attributed to another famous Greek, Archimedes, re moving the Earth given a lever and a place to stand. Seems an amusing observation… ala “who needs a lever, *I* could do it with a plate”… which then translates nicely into the tectonic cd.

    And reading a little differently, can even see wordplay here (which some claim absent). “He” is Juan De Fuca, but “with a plate” (i.e. add “plate” to the “he”) gives “Juan De Fuca Plate”, which “can certainly make the Earth move” (i.e. cause earthquakes). Given the craftiness of some other clues today, this wouldn’t at all surprise me.

  97. OddOtter @95. Yes, I was thinking along the same lines, but got distracted with thoughts of how far away you’d have to be, who would manufacture the plate for you, and what you’d use for a fulcrum; then once I got the crossers I just resorted to Google like everyone else (apart from you North Americans, of course). I’m sure your explanation is along the right lines, and the homophone idea is just a red herring. (According to Wiki, he was actually called Ioannis Phokas (Greek: ??????? ?????), a Greek maritime pilot, “better known by the Spanish translation of his name, Juan de Fuca”. His name is looking less and less likely as a homphone of anything.)

  98. Sour grapes, perhaps, because I couldn’t solve it, but the vague barely cryptic definition to a (to my mind) obscure person without any wordplay at 13D is completely out of order. I guessed JUAN DE CUBA based on the checkers, but without knowing the supposedly “general” knowledge, how is anyone expected to be able to solve it? Grump. Grump.

  100. Guess I’m in the minority – I thought this was a wonderful puzzle. Thanks to James @14 for parsing the “plet” / “p-lease” – that was the one thing I couldn’t figure out.
    Oh, and of course, permit me to enter my customary protest about the use of a generic common noun (She) for a proper noun (Isabelle) – the only thing I did not like about this puzzle.

  102. Valentine@81, I’m Canadian, was living in El Paso when I started doing the Guardian cryptic 3 years ago, but moved back to Toronto in March of 2020 for a new job. My brother and I now do the cryptic together by phone, we started with the lockdown, he’s also here in Toronto. British spellings are no problem we use them anyway … but Britishisms often lose us. Very glad of the diversion! Thanks to all the setters, bloggers and commenters, I read this blog daily.

  103. I got to this very late, and enjoyed it very much throughout – until my last two went in, one of which was ‘correcting’ SENDING to SELLING. I agree with Penfold, MaidenBartok and gladys that the phrase is ‘(carry or send) coals to Newcastle’, for which there are three good authorities: Chambers, Collins and Brewer (although Collins cleverly misses out the verb and defines the rest of the phrase in terms of a supply of goods to a place already over-supplied).
    The phrase, with carry or send, refers to the actual undertaking of a task that is futile, whereas changing it to selling refers to a task that is impossible to carry out (because, far from selling the goods, you would have to pay Newcastle to take them!).
    I thought that was one blemish in a very good crossword.

  104. Alan B. I guess you haven’t read alan hopkins @71 or me @73. I hadn’t heard the ‘selling’ version either, but when your namesake gave his origin in the north-east as authority I had a look online, where there seems to be evidence to support it. You’re not alone in stating confidently that ‘selling’ is incorrect, just the latest!

  105. sheffieldhatter @104
    You’re right – I did miss those two comments, and I apologise. I am only too happy to be educated further by a local lad’s knowledge (that of my namesake). I was not wrong in citing the authoritative published sources in support of what I said, and the fact that alternatives can be found online is of course not surprising. Thanks for your comment, and I must thank Alan for his.

  106. On reflection, I think the non sequitur is quite logical. Both heart and watch should tick, so if there’s only one tick, either he’s dead or my watch has stopped. Made me laugh anyway! Cheers Philistine and Andrew.

  107. mrpenny@80, Valentine@81 and others, for once being a Canadian (albeit not from the west coast) helped me with 13d. Once some crossers were in, I thought of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and then I thought, “the strait is situated on a tectonic plate fault line – I wonder if that is also called Juan de Fuca?” As a result, I did not think that clue was unfair.

    I really enjoyed this crossword, as I enjoy all of Philistine’s. Favourites were 7d INCHOATE and 11 INCOMPLETE (once James@14 gave us the parsing).

    Re: 1a etc, is it more insensitive to anticipate his demise or to anticipate his reaching such a memorable birthday? (I’m planning a 100th birthday Zoom for a favourite aunt, for the end of May. Am I being presumptuous?)

  108. MaidenBartok@68
    [I would be pleased to hear what “the study goes on to say about messy desks” which you are “now going to dine out on”.

  109. MaidenBartok@68
    [P.S. A colleague used to have a poster on her door that featured a quote from Albert Einstein “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?”]

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