Guardian 28,336 / Paul

85 comments on “Guardian 28,336 / Paul”

1. 19 – whether going up or down

2. 19d is just a reference to it being a palindrome.

3. Much to enjoy this morning. Presumably any crossie constipation on the eastern side was relieved as soon as we got STEWED PRUNES. I also liked the Humber thumber in HUMBERT HUMBERT, FOUL THROW, MATRIX, DEIFIED, HYPOTENUSE and, of course, the surface for HEREFORD.

   The heaven or hell in DEIFIED indicates a palindrome.

   If HYPOTENUSE is 24 (squared = 576) and one side is 15 (I think we all know that 15 squared is 225), then the other side must be about 18.735, but I’m not sure that helps us.

   Thanks Paul and Eileen

4. Definitely a puzzle of two halves. Found the SW-NE axis quite easy, but was held up for ages on the SE corner.
   It was a help in several clues to know that Paul was the setter!
   Did not know HURRAY.
   Felt the word ‘old’ was a bit superfluous in NOTORIOUS. There was, apparently, a more modern film of that name.
   DEIFIED – also have problems with it. IF in DIED perhaps? If you’ve died, then you’re bound for heaven or hell (if you believe that sort of thing) ??? But then there’s a missing E
   Eileen, the blog is your usual excellence.
   Thanks to yourself and to Paul.

5. Ah, thanks for explanation re DEIFIED.

6. Thanks both. I was also puzzled by DEIFIED, thinking it was IF in DIED somehow, but that left a spare E. Thanks to the commentators above for the answer

7. Thanks, all – I was on the same track as Anna and Shirl! I’ll edit the blog.

8. I too did this during unfolding events Eileen but thankfully found it on the easy side for Paul. Having said that, I thought this was superb . AYE AYES was new but my favourite was HUMBERT x2. I also liked LOO BRUSH and the clever HYPOTENUSE. Apart from DEIFIED being a palindrome where I thought up or down ie Heaven and Hell, it reads the same, I couldn’t parse it either. Ta Eileen & Paul

9. Great minds think alike! And get it wrong!

10. Like Anne @4 I sped through before coming to a jarring halt. But it was the last few clues that provided the magic. I too puzzled over HURRAY, one of three I had to enter uncertainly, the others being NOTORIOUS and DEIFIED, thanks to Eileen for her knowledge of Hitchcock films and to Ivor and Hovis for the palindromic DEIFIED. I loved the homophones for once: LOOBRUSH and MATRIX were delightful. But clue of the day has to be HUMBERTHUMBERT. Very witty. Thanks Paul.

11. Classic Paul. A real challenge and satisfying when complete. LOI was Well Turned Out and felt silly for not seeing it earlier. Thanks Paul and Eileen for a good 2 hour distraction from the awful scenes in the US. Never thought I’d see that in my lifetime.

12. Ah! I looked forward to the return of the Paul I know and love, and here it is!

    Thanks, Eileen

13. Easiest puzzle of the week, and least fun, to boot, following a good run. Got a smirk out of LOO BRUSH and HEREFORD, but too many obvious bung-in-parse-later types. LOI was RUMBA, but by then felt no inclination to do so.

14. New: prayer = one who prays (found it in Chambers, but never saw it in use); hot dog = HURRAY; FOUL THROW (checked to see if this exists in football + did not parse it)

    Did not parse RAIN FOREST, DEIFIED (got as far as e+if in DIED) – oh, I see it is a palindrome. Never saw that device used before.

    I realise now that I solved but did not parse HUMBERT HUMBERT. I solved it from the definition alone.

    Thanks, E+P

15. Much to love here this morning with silly schoolboy laughs for 12a and 27,4a.

    Interestingly, I didn’t notice the setter when I started and just pushed through – I wonder if sometime we read the setter and think “oh – s/he’s hard” and it becomes self-fulfilling?

    Late to the party as I started this late having been glued to the radio most of the night. Painful scenes.

    Thanks Paul for an excellent puzzle and Eileen for the blog!

16. There’s a fascinating snippet in Chambers about the former distinction between “yea” (simple agreement) and “yes” (agreement with something that’s been negated. If I understand it correctly, it goes like this:
    “Do you agree?” “Yea.”
    “Don’t you agree?” “Yes [I do agree].”
    Who’d have thought it?
    Loved the Yorkie hitcher…

17. A relatively easy ride from Paul today. I didn’t parse NOTORIOUS or DEIFIED (you’re not alone Eileen!) but they were readily apparent from the crossers and def which is a hallmark of good construction. STEWED PRUNES was a favourite and a typical Paul hallmark.

    A couple of quibbles, though, if I may. Surely the S in AYE-AYES is unclued?

    And STEEL DRUMs are played, rather than beaten, aren’t they? You don’t go pounding away at them with big sticks, anyway.

18. Boffo @17 But is the STEEL DRUM container beaten to produce the STEEL DRUM instrument?

19. Pleasantly surprised to see that I was on the right lines @8 with DEIFIED but is there any religious link to palindromes. I feel like I’m missing something more subtle going on with Heaven and Hell…

20. HURRAY! Not quite the right spelling for for the feeling I had on seeing this was correct, but it will do. Thank goodness for the wordplay as I had zero idea about the def. Still, I failed on FOUL THROW where I didn’t spot the old reverse anagram trick. If someone doesn’t get in before me Boffo @17, AYE-AYES is A YEA YES, ie ‘A couple of affirmatives’, in this case 2 different terms.

    Vintage Paul with some beauties such as the ‘lube rush’ homophone and the ‘ those responsible for movement? def.

    Maybe not a perfect antidote to make one forget about the depressing events in Washington but it helped.

    Thanks to Paul and Eileen

21. Boffo @17 – following blaise’s comment @16, I suppose the parsing could be A YEA YES?

22. AlanC @19 Heaven or hell, the same up or down in a down clue.

23. You got in before me, WordPlodder!

24. Very enjoyable, and I laughed at least twice! I would quibble, though, about the use of “years” in the clue for HYPOTENUSE – to me it implied multiple occurrences of the letter Y in the solution,

    Still great fun, though…

25. On a day which is truly the best of times, the worst of times – the election of Raphael Warnock, thugs descending on the Capitol with the National Guard nowhere to be seen because the thugs had pink skins – thank Heaven for Paul on good form and for Eileen explaining (almost) all of it.
    I’m glad I was in distinguished company by not being able to parse the very clever DEIFIED. Thank you to those who explained it.
    Some classic Paul – let’s hear it for prunes, and LUBE RUSH is definitely one for those who hate homophones. Some very neat cluing – I am with those applauding HUMBERT HUMBERT, and I thought PRECAUTION, HYPOTENUSE and FOUL THROW were especially good. Didn’t understand 6dn, but hey.
    And 21ac turned out to be wonderfully timed. (Never thought we’d be thinking “Do you remember Gerald Ford? A good President, wasn’t he…?”)

26. Thanks, Eileen, and thanks to those who explained the palindrome element of DEIFIED, which eluded me.

    Great stuff from Paul. Like others, I was tickled by the Humber thumber.

    As for “hot dog” as an expression of approval, here is Mr B. Wooster:

    How different it all would have been, I could not but reflect, if this girl had been the sort of girl one chirrups cheerily to over the telephone and takes for spins in the old two-seater. In that case, I would simply have said, ‘Listen,’ and she would have said, ‘What?’ and I would have said, ‘You know Gussie Fink-Nottle,’ and she would have said, ‘Yes,’ and I would have said, ‘He loves you,’ and she would have said either, ‘What, that mutt? Well, thank heaven for one good laugh today,’ or else, in more passionate vein, ‘Hot dog! Tell me more.’ [Right Ho, Jeeves, 1934]

27. I loved the HUMBERTs and thought RAIN FOREST was good too among several others. Does political anxiety impair crossword-solving ability? That’s my excuse anyway.

28. Delighted to be able to say “welcome back” to vintage Paul.

    Excellent surfaces all over and can’t decide between HURRAY & FOUL THROW for pick of the crop.

    Great fun, many thanks, Paul, more like this, please.

    Muffin, if you’re around, thanks for your help yesterday, the buttons are back!

29. I noted that the definition of HOT DOG is in Collins and the ODE, but not Chambers it seems.
    Thanks Eileen and Paul

30. Just couldn’t get HURRAY, after staring at it for some time. A DNF therefore. After the STEWED PRUNES got some movement going again. LOO BRUSH typically Paul, as well…

31. Thanks Eileen – 2d was onvious Samba or Rumb but the answer was not obvious to me because I used the B of bit before A …… and guessed Samba fron the S of start!

    After seeing your solution I am thinking crumbs!
    Like several of you DIETEID which turned out to dieFied left me wondering how.

    I was chuffed to get EMILE straight away, but failed to solve it tbh because I assumed ZOLA must be the portuguese for hello because OLA is the spanish. Once my answer checks out , I don’t dwell too long on the parsing – perhaps I should but that can put put me in a foul mood , as it did yesterday!

    Thanks Paul, Eileen and you brain boxes who spotted the palindrome!

32. Sorry I have the bedroom door open for the dog to go outside, and my fingers are frozen!

33. Miche @26 Well done for finding a Bertie hot dog! You can’t beat a bit of Wodehouse. Great names: Gussie Fink-Nottle, Pongo Twistleton etc.

34. I did not parse 18, 1d as an envelope. I simply took it to be ‘Humber thumber’ + T. Which, I think, is simpler and more elegantly pleasing.

35. A technical DNF for me because I mis-parsed 19. I completely failed to take note of the extra E, and I read it as ‘if’ in ‘died.

36. Blaise – like oui and si in French. Enjoyable Paul this time.

37. I thought: “one requesting a lift must be hiker.” Oh no! I did like HUMBER THUMBER though and I tend to agree with Andrew @34 that it seems to be a charade – not that that really matters.

    I agree with others that this seemed to be a return to top form for Paul. I liked many clues, but particularly HH, MATRIX and FOUL THROW.

    Thanks Paul and Eileen (commiserations on a miserable evening).

38. Andrew Skeats @34 – I’m sure you’re right. I’ve revised the blog.

39. I put in WIENER for 1 across: a race for sausage dogs, and American for “hot dog”. Doh. Great puzzle though.

40. Thanks to Eileen and others for help with parsing – DEIFIED and RUMBA. For the latter I had starts with rum = off plus = bit, but didn’t find that satisfactory. Crumb makes so much more sense. Fav was STEWED PRUNES. Thanks to Paul and Eileen

41. D’oh. Plus b = bit.

    Btw hot dog seems very familiar to me, perhaps from American tv shows. I don’t remember it from Wodehouse, but that’s probably cos it’s been years since I read any

42. I couldn’t see how 22ac works, as I’ve always pronounced it ‘mat-ricks’ so thanks eileen for reminding me of the alternative. Thanks to others above for clarifying parsing of several others only partially got before entry, and to Paul as ever.

43. Boffo @17 Eileen @21 “aye aye” is also in Chambers as an affirmative in it’s own right which could explain the s? I like Eileen’s parsing better though!

44. [bodycheetah @43: The great Douglas Adams made a radio series in 1985 called “Last Chance to See” with Mark Carwardine which was then re-made in 2009 for TV with Stephen Fry. The first programme on the radio series (and the original pilot) is “In Search of the Aye-Aye.” https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/111/1119856/last-chance-to-see–the-original-bbc-radio-series/9781529127621.html (or various pocasty things).]

45. Great fun, and an antidote to the outrages in Washington.

    Eileen — it’s not “a hot dog” which is an expression of approval, but “Hot dog!” Thanks to Bertie.

    With just the initial H at 18d, I tried to fit in HITCHER, or perhaps HITCHER separated somewhere inside by a bridge, or …?

    blaise @16 Your distinction is like the one in French between “oui” and “si.”

    Penthouse @3 The HYPOTENUSE is the longest of the three sides of a right triangle.

46. [[Let me make a confession.
    For various reasons, I don’t solve these UK puzzles like I used to do most regularly and successfully when I started learning to do puzzles back in the 1970s. It was Everyman, DT or similar 13x puzzles published by arrangement with UK papers (Rufus and others). None of the papers mentions the source but I got to know them.
    However, I visit this site to be abreast of the UK crossword scene and also write occasional comments. In the process I also learn something or the other.
    Only once while writing a Comment under a Tramp puzzle I let the guard down and by making an error betrayed the fact that I had not solved the puzzle.
    Today one of the things I learned was the pronunciation of ‘matrix’. I too may have been pronouncing it as peterM has said above.
    I hope there’s no rule that one must have done the puzzle before making any Comment. I want to be rid of any guilty feelings.]

47. Valentine, you aren’t the only one to try fitting HITCHER into 18d. As I hadn’t heard of HUMBERT HUMBERT I didn’t parse him until much later, but now I’ve seen the Humber-thumber I think it’s great fun.

    Thanks to Paul, and to Eileen for sorting out RUMBA (I also went down the off=RUM route: I’m useless at those think-of-a-word-and-behead-it clues)

48. Good of the blogger to let us know how clever they are, despite missing half the parses. A really enjoyable crossword, we thought, with lube rush giving us the most amusement.

49. Valentine @45 That’s right. Paul made the mistake of putting HYPOTENUSE in an across clue, when it clearly should be diagonal.

50. Thanks both,
    In the invitation to his Zoom session tonight, Paul says that one answer is not in the dictionaries. I guess he means 1ac. He asks how do people feel about that. Personally, I’m happy to reflect usage rather than submit to the tyranny of lexicographers.

51. HURRAY might as well have been written in a different language as far as I am concerned. Oh it was. Getable from the wordplay I know, but what with the likes of Tramp’s EA the other day it seems that setters are trying to find one clue – just one – that is just beyond my grasp. But hey, I don’t take these things personally.

52. Thanks to Paul for the entertainment and to Eileen for many parsings which escaped me.

    I’m not convinced (yet) by the equivalence of SPOUSAL and “union”. Noun v adjective?

    Rishi@46: It’s an open forum and an interest in cryptics is, I think, the only qualification.

    Peter & Ant@48: That’s twice recently. There is a difference between being clever and trying to be clever. I might refer you to 0:50 of this

53. AlanC @19, I’m not aware of any particular religious significance of palindromes, and I’m sure the clue is just an indication to read the answer both up and down, but here’s a coincidental connection: “Satan oscillate my metallic sonatas” (ignore spaces as normal with palindromes).

    blaise @16 et al, oui/si, ja/doch. It’s a pity we have lost the distinction and have to resort to the clumsier “yes it is” and equivalents. I wonder whether Mr Yeaman is an agreeable fellow; I have never come across the disagreeable Mr Yesman.

54. Alphalpha @52 – according to Collins and Chambers, they can both be nouns. I’m more used to ‘espousal’.

55. Eileen@54: I very much appreciate you taking the time to elaborate on that. I tend not to consult dictionaries – I’m just lazy that way, but it’s a laziness I can indulge only thanks to the efforts of you and the other bloggers on 15^2, not to mention auxiliary inputs from other contributors.

56. [Monkey @53: “A recent archaeological expedition in the Garden of Eden has unearthed some badly deteriorating VHS tapes. Careful salvaging of this grainy, B&W footage* shows the very first sentence spoken by Adam when he introduced himself to Eve, and her reply:

    “Madam, I’m Adam.”
    “Eve.””

    https://wordsmith.org/words/ere.html

    🙂 ]

57. James Stewart exclaims “Hot Dog” a couple of times in the film A Wonderful Life

58. Just to say that the Cambridge online dictionary gives Hurrah, Hurray and Hooray as interchangeable, which is how I’ve always thought of them. Tho you wouldn’t want to alter Hooray Henry.

59. Monkey @53: thanks for that. I suppose it’s just that when I solve a Paul clue, I feel that I’ve still missed something, because I hold him in such high regard.

60. Alphalpha: there’s an “in” there that can sort it out if you think SPOUSAL needs to be an adjective. So the definition given of SPOUSAL = “in union.” “Of” would have been cleaner, but it’s good enough for me.

61. Despite needing to reveal a few like HUMBERT HUMBERT, LOO BRUSH, and STEWED PRUNES I rather enjoyed this last evening while sitting in my Capitol Hill home under curfew. [This too shall pass.] Favourites included STEEL DRUM, A BIT ON THE SIDE, and EMILE ZOLA. Thanks Paul, and Eileen for the blog. [Eileen — if you haven’t done the crossword in Wednesday’s FT by Leonidas, please treat yourself to this.]

62. This was indeed good fun. The parsing of DEIFIED eluded me – so thanks to all for the help – and Eileen, I initially came at HURRAY in exactly the same way as you; alas, it’s a good long while since I last saw It’s A Wonderful Life, and I’ve never much cared for Wooster (clearly this is a failing on my part, but to me he just comes across as an over-privileged ass) so thank heavens for FS!
    The Humberts made me grin, as did LOO BRUSH and STEWED PRUNES.
    Thanks to Paul for the entertainment and to Eileen for the hard work.

63. Orcwood @36. Oui, merci, vous avez raison. (I’ve lived in France for 40-odd years but didn’t twig the similarity.)

64. Tony Santucci @61 – I didn’t get round to trying the Leonidas yesterday but I’d sneaked a look at the blog, so it was too late to go back to it. Was it the inclusion of my oft-quoted ‘beloved Wensleydale River’ (Ure) that led you to recommend it to me?

65. [Eileen @64: It wasn’t the river Ure, it was the excellent cluing from a setter who’s relatively new to me.]

66. I remember a few weeks (months?) back, someone on here complaining that a word shouldn’t ever appear twice in a grid; I wonder if HUMBERT HUMBERT is Paul’s riposte to that?

    I enjoyed ‘lube rush’, ‘hot dog!’ and ‘May tricks’.

    I can’t remember seeing SPOUSAL used except in the rather disturbing phrase spousal abuse, which can be re-written as abuse within a relationship or ‘in union’.

    Another way of looking at the HUMBER THUMBER is that the hitch hiker is ‘across’ (ie the other side of) the Humber, though the explanation put forward by Andrew Sceats @34 is ” simpler and more elegantly pleasing” and also probably correct.

    If Peter & Ant @48 only come here to be rude, could they please be barred from using the site, Gaufrid?

67. Tony @65 – fair enough. I see that I did comment on Leonidas’ first puzzle but seem to have somehow missed his/her second, as well as yesterday’s. I’ll certainly look out for the next one.

68. Not quite as sparkling as Paul can be, but I loved NEPALI for its perfect surface. Hot Dog and HURRAY, while both being exclamations, are not quite the same I feel.

    Thanks, Paul, Eileen and all for the proper parsings of AYE-AYES and HUMBERT HUMBERT. Good to see the buttons above the comments box back.

69. Blaise, Orcwood – also in German: ja and doch.

70. phitonelly @68. Recently we’ve had ‘my’ a couple of times to clue HECK and COR, neither of which are “quite the same”, but definitely solvable, I thought. HURRAY was a bit harder to get from the definition, but the wordplay was clear enough – though I must admit it was my penultimate entry in the grid!

71. Peter & Ant @48, I’m not sure I understand what you’re getting at. I for one, did not get any sense of smugness or of boastfulness from the blog. On the contrary I found it very useful for a couple of parsings (1a HURRAY and 25/20 RAINFOREST). All the bloggers do a terrific job, and my solving has come on by leaps and bounds in the year or so that I’ve been following 15^2. A pretty ridiculous comment you’ve got to admit.

    Many thanks to Eileen and Paul.

72. I’m surprised that only sheffield hatter@66 has commented on P****@A**@48’s comment. I second his motion. Their 2nd sentence was OK, but their first was scurrilous, gratuitous, rude, offensive, entirely unnecessary and uncalled for.

    I trust that Eileen knows the high regard in which she is held by her friends on this site, so she can easily ignore such nonsense.

    Thank you Eileen for the blog written under distressing circumstances, and Paul for the delightful crossword.

73. Sorry matematico@71, I missed your comment. Well said.

74. Thanks for kindly comments.

    Maidenbartok @56 – I can’t resist adding this classic

75. Didn’t work – try again: https://dawnfrenchvideos.com/vicar-of-dibley/3-nuns-die-and-go-to-heaven-the-vicar-tells-a-joke/

76. [Eileen @75: Hahahaha! And thank you for the education in the dark art of cryptics – I appreciate it even if @48 doesn’t.]

77. The explanation for 1a is weak … I sort of get it and I have probably (as a north american) used the word hotdog in that way, but never “a hotdog”, and nobody spells it hurray over here … lame, as we like to say.

78. A DNF here, as bunged in HURRAH without thinking too hard about it (basically from the refernce in Paul’s invite). Also bunged in NOTORIOUS without knowing the filmic reference.

79. Jim @77 – It’s not “a hotdog”, the “a” belongs to the first half of the clue. The def is simply “hot dog in America”. No one needs to have said hurray in the US ever. The word hurray is still (loosely) synonymous with an American saying “hot dog!”

    No smugness here, because after working at this on and off for most of the day, I felt it had to be the answer from the rest of the clue, but didn’t quite see why. And to be honest, I should have been able to work it out. Mea culpa.

    But it’s disappointing when I drop in here to check or discuss and find people being snippy or outright rude in comments, like 48 above. It doesn’t add anything, and can’t be excused as a throwaway comment in passing, because once you remove the personal attack, there’s nothing left. I don’t have much of a stake here, as a relative newbie, but I think it would be a considerable improvement if such unpleasantness was banned.

80. This is a quick addition as we finished it the same day (2355 last night) which is mega-exciting and the first time we’ve done that since the start of lockdown one – but we’re too tired to post then. Haven’t yet read the blogs but thanks to Paul and Eileen. We rather liked 24 a – appeals to the Mathematicians in us….

    (I should add – we only do the crossword on a Thursday when the paper and shopping get collected, so it’s a 1/39 success rate rather than around 1/200)

81. Well done those Wombles.There is an online version in case you didn’t know. Happy days

82. Now we’ve read ALL the blog, we (I) am feeling quite smug for getting deified very quickly and its parsing – though, of course, that didn’t apply to all the rest of the clues. I don’t think I worked out RAIN FOREST for example. I also wish I could remember CAN for toilet – I forget every time.
    Thanks alpha alpha @81 – but if we did the crossword every day we would do nothing else in our lives and starve to death!

83. “Hot dog, jumping frog, Albuquerque” is where I know it from; the wonderful Paddy McAloon. Love that ALPINE is an anagram of Nepali

84. Regarding 1ac: I have always thought of the expression “Hot dog!” as a euphemism for “Hot damn!”(which Americans certainly say; does anyone else?), but have no authority for that belief. Analogous to “bally” for “bloody” or “heck” for “hell,” in its being a nonsensical substitute for the taboo expression. “Hot dog!” as an interjection is thought by many to have been coined by this early cartoonist: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tad_Dorgan, with whose work Wodehouse would almost certainly have been familiar.

    Incidentally, I’ve spent the pandemic (thus far) doing all the Guardian cryptics for the past six years, and have only just begun this month’s. It has muted the general annoyance immeasurably.

85. Thanks for that, npetrikov.

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