Guardian Cryptic 28,349 by Paul

104 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,349 by Paul”

1. I enjoyed this puzzle a lot, though it was a trifle easier than the typical Paul. And, for once, I even got half the theme – well, half of it, anyway. It was FIVER and the easy BIGWIG that I recognised from Watership Down. But I had to google the references to the other Adams’ characters.
   Was held up for a while by entering MADISON at 8ac (d for drink in maison).
   CAVA is only OK for the French if written ça va.
   Not too sure about ‘characteristic’ equals ‘factor’.
   Lots of ticks but I particularly liked MEGAHERTZ, HAZARD, DUCK and the spoonerism.
   Thanks to Paul and to manehi.

2. As soon as the penny dropped on 16a, this all fell very quickly in place, not least because HHGTTG and Watership Down used to sit back-to-back on my bookshelves as a teenager.

   Certainly easier than Paul’s Prize from Saturday, which I still cannot make head nor tail of, and am eagerly looking forward to tomorrow’s annotation.

   MEGAHERTZ and BAHRAIN were fine adventures in advanced silliness. Thanks to Paul and manehi.

3. My heart sank when I saw MEGAHERTZ at the thought of the science and homophone pedants assembling in force 🙂
   I suspect this will be a bit of a marmite theme but unlike the delicious savoury spread, I wasn’t a fan of this and ultimately the crossword felt a bit overpowered by the theme. No Paul’s finest hour but I appreciate the effort and the idea

4. I’ve never read Watership Down and have no intention of so doing, so FIVER was an initial guess before I got 16a. And only with crossers present did 6,25 jump out at me and I remembered the other Adams, that I had read, but largely forgotten. So a lot of reference to Google rather made this a bit of a drudge for me, and perhaps spoiled the enjoyment of some of the non-themed clues. Kicked myself when I finally saw 9,21. But the problems were mine, so thanks to Paul and to Manehi for the blog.

5. Hard to break my way in this morning. Like so many of these interlinked puzzles, an initial feeling of despair as nothing seemed to make sense and no hope of solving the key 16 across. It cracked in an unexpected way with a flash of inspiration: the dozen/DOZED OFF device occurred which led to DUDE and DUCK and suddenly I had the makings of PREFECT (helped by the word coming up, possibly with the same two crossers, in another recent puzzle). There’s only one person I can think of with that surname and the challenge was unlocked. The same Z gave me HAZEL and the second theme and equally fond memories of another classic.

   I was lucky enough to chance upon the Hitchiker’s Guide when it was first broadcast, with very little fanfare, late one evening in 1978. No chance to catch a repeat in those days. But I was smitten and became an immediate fan, following all of Adams’ subsequent work. (For those who might like to be reminded of the the thoughts that went through the minds of the sperm whale and the bowl of petunias (whose summoning into existence was the unlikely result of the use of the improbability drive to counter a potentially destructive missile) here it is.)

   A delightful puzzle with – oddly enough – a non-themed solution – VARNISHED – as my favourite. I shall think of it next time I have to get my coat.

   Thanks Paul and manehi

6. [Boffo @2: you definitely want to be checking in tomorrow. Paul’s ingenuity never ceases to amaze and I’m sure you’re going to enjoy the revelation!]

7. Bit of a trick having two Adamses in one, but quite fun (and I think someone said The Rev had done it before). Well, it’s 40-plus years since reading Watership down to our kids before bed (pleeez one more chapter), so recall of character names? … no. And as for THGTTG, again via the kids, sporadic TV acquaintance, which did help a bit (has any setter ever clued the two-headed bloke …Slartibargfart or whatever?). I didn’t mind cava having neither space nor cedilla (it’s a drink in the Pacific too…from a ground up root). Paul is a consumate and indefatigable entertainer, thanks to him and to manehi.

8. Thanks, manehi.

   I thought I was off to the races when I spotted Arthur Dent, but found some of the other themed clues puzzling until I remembered the other Adams. Not having read WD in 40 years, the bunnies were harder to remember. My last in was BAHREIN: “country” as definition covering quite a lot of ground. All in all, though, good fun.

   Anna @1 – it’s a convention in crosswords that diacritical marks can be ignored.

9. grantinfreo @7 – Paul’s alter ego, Punk, set a Douglas/Richard Adams crossword in 2017: http://www.fifteensquared.net/2017/01/31/independent-9454-punk/ . Solutions included ZAP and HOD. (Zaphod Beeblebrox is the guy with two heads; Slartibartfast is the planetary designer who won an award for Norway.)

10. Didn’t make the Richard Adams connection – for the clues at 3d and 15d (Sliver/Fiver) I thought Paul was referencing the economist Adam Smith (AdamS). I just assumed there was a Hazel in HHG or Dirk Gently that I hadn’t come across.

11. I did half of this last night, having sussed the name but apart from BIGWIG, I couldn’t remember any other characters. Therefore this just became a google fest and when I ran out of WD characters, I tried the other author and thankfully filled in the others. I agree with Tomsdad @4 that the other clues were spoiled a bit and yes, this for me, was definitely a drudge. I did like CRABMEAT and VARNISHED. Ta Paul & manehi.

12. I had trouble starting this, then discovered the theme via BIGWIG. I needed a fair bit of help from google/wikipedia for the GK in this puzzle. Not very enjoyable for me, but I am sure it was great fun if one knows the two books that were referenced. I read Watership Down several decades ago, but I do not recall any of the characters’ names. I never read THGTTG but I have heard of it.
    Favourites: CAVA, FOOT RACE, BOURBON (loi)

13. Never read the books or seen/heard the various adaptations from the ADAMS family. Consequently didn’t know TRILLIAN, SILVER or BIGWIG, but they were gettable.

    Favourites were MEGAHERTZ and VARNISHED. I also liked BAHRAIN, but it arrived too late for the Persian Gulf Punfest.

    Thanks Paul and manehi

14. I generally like Paul, and there were one or two beauties in this – REFRACTOR was my favourite although I can sympathise with Anna @1 about factor = characteristic.
    But I really dislike puzzles which require fairly obscure general knowledge with absolutely no help from the wordplay, and I say that as someone who loved Hitchhiker’s Guide (Marvin the Paranoid Android with “Life, don’t talk to me about life. Loathe it or ignore it, you can’t like it” seems a guide for our times) and who thought Watership Down was good and at times brilliant.
    Eventually, having gone astray with CLOVER at 3dn, I got so fed up with this that I even failed to get CAVA (clever, and I really don’t mind the missing cedilla) and DOMINOES and decided life was too short. First time in ages I have grumpily tossed a Paul aside.
    Referencing 7ac – which I also failed to get – BAH!

15. Thanks Miche @9, yes I thought I might be messing up the names. Will have a look at the Punk.

16. We seem to be fairly equally divided as to which ADAMS got us started. I immediately thought of Douglas and resolved not to look up a list if I could help it. I haven’t read any of his books but my children did and I thought I might have gathered some of the names by some kind of osmosis, which proved to be the case. Like grantifreo @7, I do fondly remember reading ‘Watership Down’ to my four children before bed on a camping holiday, so those names sprang readily to mind, so, overall, I enjoyed the theme, which I thought was quite clever.

    Favourite clues were BAHRAIN, VARNISHED and DOMINOES. I’ve seen 1dn CAVA more than once before but still like it.

    Thanks to Paul for the fun and to manehi for the blog. (Now for Wanderer (Puck) in the FT,)

17. My way in was Douglas and “Watership Down”. Similarly to some previous contributors who have already posted, I actually liked this a lot. I particularly liked the interplay of clues between the two different authors which kept it interesting. All my favourites have already been cited by others, so it only remains for me to say thank you to Paul, manehi, and fellow solvers.

18. Real struggle to get started. But I thought ‘Don’t Panic!’ once I got Bigwig. Definitely needed a brain the size of a planet to realise that there were 2 Adams in the theme. Luckily I had my towel to hand. ( Ok, so I also discovered the original radio series of HHGTG as a kid and followed all the versions since. Wonderful theme music supplied by an atypical Eagles track.)

19. Also, should have said thanks to the devious Paul and manehi.

20. Tricky little thing this morning – the Douglas Adams reference helped a lot as I’m a big HHGTTG/Adams fan but Richard Adams and the Bunny Boilers? Nah. I was holding out for a clue to SLARTIBARTFAST but it wasn’t to be. I have been known to call various incompetent apparatchicks “a bunch of Golgafrinchan B-Arkers” in my time which shows my age.

    [PostMark @5: HHGTTG came along in my formative years and the date and time of the first broadcast, 8th March 1978 at 10.30 on Radio 4 is etched in my memory. There were a bunch of us “geeky” types at school (model railway club, electronics/amateur radio club, madrigal group – all things I still love!) who use to quote great chunks of it at each other. As it was late on a Wednesday, I used to stand in the shower listening to it with a bright-orange Philips transistor radio in fits of laughter.

    Added to the fabulous scripts and the superb acting was the music – where else in dull late-70s Britain could you get a shot of Ligeti and Terry Riley?!

    Douglas Adams is one of my heroes (can you tell?) – a real Renaissance man. What we he have made of the strange times we are going through at the moment.]

    Thanks to Paul for bringing back so many memories and the great puzzle. And manehi for the blog/parsing.

21. I’m a big THHGTTG fan, so kicked myself when I realised that it wasn’ t only Richard ADAMS that was being referenced – I blame that on getting a couple of rabbit names early on, having read Watership Down my first year in high school – we studied it.
    GinF@7, the Pacific drink is spelt Kava, or at least it is this side of the ditch. (There is no ‘c’ in Maori, not that it is a NZ drink, and as far as I can remember, nor in some PI languages, which would explain that spelling)
    Favs were same as Eileen@16.
    Thanks to Paul and manehi.

22. Concentrated on getting 16, knew all the Douglas references and then HAZEL pointed to Richard, whose work I have never read. LOI was BAHRAIN for no good reason.
    Several mentions of Paul’s Prize this week. It was ingenious as ever.

    Thanks to manehi and Paul.

23. [bodycheetah @3: Science pedant alert! I loved MEGAHERTZ. My local amateur radio society has the following notice – “Be careful to lash the ladders to the mast correctly because falling off megahurts” (except there is another Anglo-Saxon word inserted after “off”).

    73s and 88s. de MaidenBartok.]

24. Had to yell over the running water to the Memsahib in the shower this morning, “Author…5 letters…beginning with A.”

    “ADAMS, probably” came the prompt response, “could be either.”

    And with only that to go on, the puzzle was all but defeated. But isn’t it strange that, on first glance, seemingly every clue is linked to the key, and that when said key is turned there only seems to be a handful that are linked.

    Hey-ho, great fun from Paul this morning, many thanks, both.

25. I got the Hitchhikers Guide ones first, so it took a little longer to see the other 4 themers. Remembered all except Silver. Zaphod Beeblebrox might have been tricky to clue.

    Thanks to Paul and manehi

26. I much preferred the non-themed clues. BAHRAIN very much the theme for Manchester this week. All the Watership Down clues were either too easy if you knew the characters or too general if you didn’t, I felt.

27. MaidenBartok @20: Me too re HHGTTG and I was sooo hoping for Zaphod Beeblebrox! Gutted.

28. My brain definitely wasn’t functioning as if it were the size of a planet. I got BAHRAIN immediately and liked it. An encouraging start, but I didn’t get much further, even when I’d twigged (Douglas) ADAMS. A clever puzzle, but a DNF by a long way for me.

    Thanks to Paul and manehi.

29. I have never read or seen Watership Down so had to do a bit of googling and found this less fun than usual (unlike last week’s prize which I have not completed but am thoroughly enjoying and will have another go later today).

    Loved HHGTTG. I remember first hearing it being played when I was in a record shop way back in the early 80’s I think. I was totally fascinated and stayed in the shop for ages listening to it.

    Favourites BAHRAIN, BOURBON, HAIL MARY

    Thanks to Paul and to manehi (needed help parsing quite a few.)

30. [Median @28: OK – first one to clue those two and “Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz” wins a prize…

    I just remembered that “AYE-AYE” came up a few days/weeks/months/parsecs ago reminding me again that Douglas Adams was light-years ahead in terms of his thinking on species extinction and that by 1985 he was already warning us of our future.]

31. [Sorry – William @27…]

32. My first two in were FIVER and TENNER (in 3D), both characters in WD meaning money. Unfortunately, 4D turned out to be SILVER. Paul playing tricks I think!

33. Thanks Paul and manehi
    Very slow start, not helped by trying for ages to see where the CHU came from in CHATEAU (at 8a – I don’t like the “in” in the clue if BOURBON is the solution). I got in through FIVER and wrote in ADAMS without having a clue how it parsed. I was slow to realise that both of the Adams featured, but I knew both works well enough that Google wasn’t required.
    I didn’t parse CRABMEAT either, as I was convinced that “before lunch” gave the AM.
    I had a poor day all round, as I initially wrote three answers in the wrong place – DENT in two wrong places!

34. Although I had the initial A early on, it took me an unconscionably long time to spot ADAMS. Like PostMark(@5) it was PREFECT which unlocked the puzzle for me, and then FIVER led me to the second author. Ingenious puzzle, but last Saturday’s crossword was immeasurably superior IMHO. My favourites: HAZARD and BAHRAIN (LOI).

    Anna @1: Unlike many versions of Scrabble for different languages in which letters with diacritics have separate tiles, the French version ignores them completely. Hence I have no problem with the missing cedilla.

35. Another one with a slow start until I got ADAMS. I’ve heard of some of the characters, but not all. I was therefore frustrated by the ‘money’ clues – such a general word that could mean anything. I also didn’t know TRILLIAN, which was my LOI, although singin’ mercifully had less possibilities.

    I ticked BAHRAIN and REFRACTOR (I tried reflector at first, but it patently didn’t work).

    Thanks Paul (I preferred the last Prize one, which although difficult was satisfying to solve) and manehi.

36. Pleased that we managed all but 1 of the names without taking the Google route (which would have spoilt the fun).

    [Saw the series of one and the film of t’other many moons ago but only read ‘Restaurant at the End of the Universe’ on holiday once upon a time.]

37. [Maidenbartok@20: you were late! We listened to it earlier, in the 6:30 comedy slot rather than late at night.]
    I’m baffled by those who refer to “obscure general knowledge.”
    WD: book,several television series, films, theatre adaptions on bothsides of the Atlantic, radio, adaptions…
    HHGTTG: radio series, 5 books (in a “trilogy”), television adaptions, major film, video game.
    How culturally mainstream can you get?

38. [Goujeers @37
    I might be wrong, but I think it was the other way round – the late night broadcasts were so successful that they were transferred to 6:30.]

39. bodycheetah @3. I’m a German-speaking scientist, but I take the view that crossword homophones are only approximate.

40. I’m a big fan of both WD and THHGTTG – I could bore you with stories of (a) the foggy wintry day my wife and I were driving across North Wales when I heard, by coincidence, my first episode of THHGTTG, and (b) discovering on a drive from Oxford to Winchester (with my boys to whom I was reading WD at the time) how exactly in the countryside WD is set – but I won’t. However, though I thought of both ADAMSes for 16a early on, I failed to parse it (forgetting that peculiarly British plum that makes such great jam) until hitting on HAZEL from the H and Z crossers, and going back to look harder. That brought the themed clues – it was the unthemed ones that took longer. FOI was AMETHYST (Geology degree again…). Thanks, manehi and Paul.

41. Auriga @39; for homophones, I usually say: “consult the dictionaries”. However, WHAT is this pronunciation in Collins – sounds like HO-ET?? Luckily, Oxford comes to the rescue with this.

42. [PM @5: Well I liked your link even if nobody else mentioned it 🙂 ]

    [MB @30: was that a deliberately provocative use of parsecs and light-years as a measure of time not distance?]

    Thanks for all the fish Paul, and the tartar sauce manehi

43. 12 ac: shouldn’t it be flyer? A flier is in an aeroplane

44. Anyone else get next weeks quiptic this morning?
    https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/1106

45. Cliveinfrance@44: Yes – thanks for piping up as I didn’t want to read the blog for fear of spoilers. The Paul puzzle, I now see, can be accessed via the “cryptic” link on the main crossword page – but the Anto one is there too. There’s a púca about.

46. Not having read Hitchhikers or Watership Down, I was rather up a creek with no paddle today, even with a couple of distant Adams family members to point the way. So it was rather an unsatisfactory Google and Guess for me, and an impatient DNF. Perhaps we’ll be chasing after Johnson as multi choice theme next…

47. [Cellomaniac as and when you get here. Others only if your curiosity is piqued and you have five minutes to spare.

    I was asked late last night to reproduce my father’s ‘excreta poem’ to which I had referred during yesterday’s discussions. I have done so, with a tiny bit of context, over on General Discussion. I hope no one finds this an indulgence – it was requested – and that it is an amusing read. Apologies for a non relevant interjection into today’s blog, manehi. ]

48. Well we went on a merry wild goose chase! 16A was clearly ASHER – ASH being a tree, and ER being RE (on) backwards; Jane Asher was an author as well as an actress. One of her roles was HAZEL in the TV series Stella. And there we started hitting our heads against the brick wall trying to identify her other creations. It took an unconscionably long time before Ford Prefect made himself known; a short tussle with the cognitive dissonance, and we were back on track. Ah well, it keeps us amused!

49. Cliveinfrance@44: Oh, indeed, yes! I did the Anto puzzle, then came here to see the blog and realised that something was awry. Weirdly, the date the Grauniad put on the Anto puzzle was initially from 1933 and the puzzle serial number was 1,106! And later when I refreshed the screen the date changed to Mon 25 Jan 2021. Eh??!?! Shome mishtake, shurely.

50. I think having two ADAMSes was very clever – you think you have the theme, and you do, partly, but it’s also a misdirection. I too was looking for Zaphod and Marvin and the rest and thought the inexplicable theme answers might have been from something else Douglas wrote. [BTW I was at Cambridge with him in the early 70’s, but different colleges, different subjects.]
    Didn’t Qaos do a HHGTTG theme a couple of years ago? Not complaining, the more the merrier.

51. MaidenBartok@30 Douglas Adams was way ahead of us in many ways. He talked about a superintelligent computer Deep Thought designing its successor, which is exactly what some who fear the worst of AI have been worrying about. The idea was not original with Adams, it was originally expressed by a colleague of Alan Turing’s, but nobody much knows that. In recent years, Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk, to name just two, have been issuing warnings about runaway intelligence. Of course there is also the old joke, “Is there intelligent life on Earth?”, which you wonder every time you open the newspaper nowadays.

52. [Dr.WhatsOn @50 – I was at Cambridge in the early 70s too (Churchill)]

53. [essexboy @42: Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so… 🙂

    Or is it that history is an illusion caused by the passage of time. As someone once said.

    I wondered who’d bite first. Talking of which, Pan Galatic Gargle Blaster time, methinks…

    Goujers@37, Muffin @38: the 6.30 slots were a repeat later in 78/79 from what I remember.]

54. Dr W @50 & muffin @52: I heard a story about Adams – which I haven’t been able to easily verify – that he left Cambridge as one of a group of aspiring authors most of whom secured ‘normal’ jobs which left them little time to write. He was committed to his hopes and ended up instead with a series of odd jobs whilst bashing away at a typewriter. One, security guard to a wealthy Qatari family, entailed night shifts sat in a hotel corridor outside their suite. It was the practice of the hotel to keep the elevators in occasional motion throughout the night and they had canned music playing within them. Adams maintained it was sitting in that corridor through the night with the elevator occasionally arriving, opening its doors, playing a burst of music and then departing that provided some of the inspiration for what became the Hitchiker’s Guide.

55. [Dr. WhatsOn @51: Turing and Irving Good made their views known but no-one was listening. They still aren’t – Amazon, Google, Palantir all know far more about you than your GP does… Adams was a true polymath – possibly would have been an excellent cruciverbalist. He was also an expert on Bach and whilst I love (and use!) many of his quotes, this one resonates most with me in thes awful, awful times:

    “Beethoven tells you what it’s like to be Beethoven and Mozart tells you what it’s like to be human. Bach tells you what it’s like to be the universe.”]

56. [I’ve just finished cryptic crossword 1106 by Anto, dated January 25 2021. That’s what was presented to me on my phone when I tried to access today’s crossword. I didn’t realise anything was amiss until I came here to read the blog. There was no check or reveal available, as per the prize crosswords]

57. Enjoyed this moderately. I got Adams #1 when Arthur Dent surfaced, but it never occurred to me to look for another, I just thought all those other names were H Guide characters I didn’t remember and couldn’t find in the google list. I read Watership Down ages ago, but don’t remember anything beyond that everybody is a rabbit.

    That said, some of the other clues were dandy.

58. [PostMark@54 if the elevator doors were part of that inspiration, it might explain the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation (analogue of current hi-tech/social media companies), whose employees were “first up against the wall when the revolution came”. Of course, I’m not advocating violence, just highlighting the foresight.]

59. Hilt@43
    Re Flyer or Flier
    Ironically the Guardian Style manuel say Flyer never Flier, whilst the Daily Telegraph is Flier never Flyer. So we have a Daily Telegraph answer to a Guardian cross word clue.
    Guess it depends on which paper you read.

60. Didn’t like the Adams theme – if you know the books, as we do, then half the crossword was just write in without looking at the clues at all – not much fun.

61. MB @55, your Adams quote brings to mind one of my favourite cantatas, BWV 39 Brich den Hungrigen dein Brot…. compassion help us …

62. I’m old enough to be a HHG fan from the beginning, but my WD knowledge is strictly second hand. In this case, however, my entry was via OVEN then FIVER to Richard A … I scrabbled a bit for more WD characters, but was very much aware of the other possibility when TRILLIAN came up and that sealed it. A good bit of fun, nothing too taxing, thanks to blogger and setter.

63. [grantinfreo @61: Gorgeous, isn’t it? But what piece by JSB isn’t… And let’s face it, we need all the JSB compassion we can get at the moment.

    Of course, all this crosswording brings to mind the greatest of Adams’ quotes – “I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by” – which was included in a dedication page recently and no-one either a) noticed or b) understood!]

64. I fell in love with the original HHG Radio 4 broadcasts as a schoolkid, listening to them late at night under the bedclothes. So as soon as ADAMS swam into focus, I hunted around for “creation of” places to put Arthur, Ford et al – rather than trying to parse the clues properly. It wasn’t until HAZEL appeared that it dawned on me that dear, much-missed Douglas wasn’t alone, and though I did read WD many years back, what mainly sticks in my mind was a sign in our local butcher’s, “Watership Down: you’ve read the book, seen the film, heard the song – now eat the stars!”.
    Actually, the non-adams clues were the most satisfying. Although tbh, I can never see the word VARNISHED without thinking of Blackadder’s Lord Percy and the old oak table…
    Many thanks to Paul, and to Manehi for the help with parsing 22A & 20D

65. After four successful finishes this week, Paul remains a complete mystery.
    Just three clues answered.
    Thanks for the hints Manehi, I am curious to know which the washer clues are!

66. Hillman @ 62 You must have been disappointed not to be included in the grid! Though Hillman Hunter is perhaps not a major character.
    I was surprised that none of the answers were 42

67. Not my cup of tea — having read nothing by either Adams I quickly realized that this crossword would, at best, be a hopeless slog so I quickly discarded it. I imagined it was a write-in for those who knew the authors. Either case is no fun.

68. Cliveinfrance @44

    Yes I got it too and did most of it but it has now disappeared – probably lost my answers Oh well

69. How odd the workings if the (my) brain. I had great fun last Saturday with the prize, which proceeded slowly but steadily to a very satisfying conclusion. With hindsight, today’s should have been much easier for me, but I really struggled despite having listened in 1978, and read Watership Down several times. So many clues obvious only in retrospect. At least MEGAHERTZ was a write in.

70. Really enjoued it, especially for the HHGTGG memories. Had also read WD so not a problem when I worked out there were two authors. Should have thought HHGTGG would make for a good A to Z Cryptic in oh so many ways… Surpised no one has mentioned my favourite character, Marvin the Paranoid Android yet. Thank you Paul and Manehi. Miche@9 thanks for the link – shall try it now.

71. I got to the theme from the non-themed clues that gave me the crossers to get 16a ADAMS. Only then did I find the Ford with the dent. I couldn’t remember the rabbit names, but could guess the answers from the cluing (then looked them up on Google), although like PeterJohnN@32 I entered TENNER at 3d until VARNISHED made me rethink.

    [ Thanks, PostMark, for sending me down the rabbit hole on the General Discussion page – I have replied there. ]

    I enjoyed the puzzle, but I have to admit I enjoyed the comments more. Thanks Paul, manehi and all of you for the fun and enlightenment.

    [ MaidenBartok@55, can you provide the source for the Adams Bach quote? I have used it already today. Incidentally, I listen to a Bach cantata every morning to start my day. ]

72. [Cellomaniac @71: in case you don’t visit GD that often, I’ve replied to you there. Glad you visited today and pleased you enjoyed the poem. ]

73. Boffo @ 2: I think I’ve become reasonably proficient at these now in lockdown, even Paul’s puzzles, but I don’t bother with the Prize (no particular reason). Therefore, I was intrigued to visit this morning after your comment and thus far….good grief! Six solved but I think that’s it for me. To all my fellow solvers who crack/cracked this, I salute you. I shall remain a Monday-Friday person if this is typical. Good weekend all.

74. [AlanC @73: don’t let the latest (non)-Prize put you off! The comments are more usually along the lines of “This was easier than several during the week”, and in fact Pan’s from 2 weeks ago was quicker than the average Monday.

    Re last Saturday’s, my initial thoughts were along the ‘Good grief!’ lines too. But then I ‘cracked the code’, after which it was fairly plain sailing. We’ll see tomorrow (or tonight!) what others felt, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there were some complaints that the key code-cracking clue uses a non-kosher device.]

75. AlanC @73: Don’t give up on the Paul prize — I solved it (mostly) over a two day period in short bursts. It’s quite good. On the other hand, I got nowhere with this one.

76. I was defeated by CAVA and BOURBON.
    Actually started off with MADISON instead of BOURBON (American: with Drink in MAISON) before the FORD PREFECT crosser alerted me that this was wrong!
    Thanks Paul and manehi!

77. Not often a clue makes me laugh out loud – but BAHRAIN did that today. Simple pleasures at the end of a trying week. Thanks Paul for the hilarity and manehi for the blog.

78. Magor@56: if you’re still there – me@45 “The Paul puzzle, I now see, can be accessed via the “cryptic” link on the main crossword page…”

    Pauline in Brum@70: see NeilH@14 for a reference to Marvin (fwiw)

    I didn’t really have a proper experience of this thanks to the púca@45 because in spite of myself I took enough on board while scrolling through comments to spoil ADAMS so after that it was a bit like trying to enjoy someone else’s leftovers. I don’t think I would have enjoyed it anyway – themes tend to make me grumpy.

79. HAIL MARY was one of my favourites – but a great crossword altogether, and more enjoyable than some Paul ones!

80. cellomaniac @72: I can’t find the original source but it is mentioned on the BBC Radio 3 programme here https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/bach/bachatozq.shtml and it was in the programme for the Bach event at Kings Place https://www.kingsplace.co.uk/whats-on/classical/douglas-adams/

    There are some other Bach references in Dirk Gently but if I start re-reading that you’ll never get an answer from me.

    [BTW, there is a superb adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys avaiable on Radio 4 by Dirk Maggs, he who took on the final Fit of the HHGTTG after Adams’ death. Anansi Boys is very Hitchhikerian in the radio adaptation.]

81. [I remember a quote of Carl Sagan being asked why there wasn’t any Bach on the golden record on Voyager 1 “We thought it would be boasting”. Unfortunately, Wikipedia tells me that it did include Bach – one of the Brandenburg Concertos.]

82. [cellomaniac @72: Meant to add that Bach has been my refuge since the first lockdown. Been working my way through learning each of the 48 and listening to a huge amount JSB, especially the solo works. I’ve found JSB to be of great comfort.]

83. Luckily, we suspected there’d be 2 Adams from the off, mostly because I thought of rabbits and spouse thought of Paranoid Androids. Lovely crossword Paul, thank you, and Manehi for the blog.

84. Both of the Adams are authors I’m not really familiar with in terms of having read their works so lost interest pretty quickly. Managed about a dozen before hitting the reveal button.

85. AlanC @ 73 & essexboy @ 74

    Horses for courses. Paul’s 14 was my FOI, the cypher was cracked, and all the themed clues became more or less write-ins. Good setting concept, but for me a very unsatisfactory/disappointing puzzle.

86. essexboy @74 &Tony Santucci @75: appreciate the comments, may have to revisit in the future then.

87. Well, obviously it’s not Paul’s fault that I haven’t read either of the ADAMSes. So I’m not complaining about those (though I managed to deredge more than half from somewhere).

    However, did he know that there is a video game called BOOMBOTS which is an anagram (‘make’) of BOMBS TO around (‘defending’) O? Of course if I’d got VARNISHED none of this would have happened…

88. Well, obviously it’s not Paul’s fault that I haven’t read either of the ADAMSes. So I’m not complaining about those (though I managed to dredge more than half from somewhere).

    However, did he know that there is a video game called BOOMBOTS which is an anagram (‘make’) of BOMBS TO around (‘defending’) O? Of course if I’d got VARNISHED none of this would have happened…

89. Is there a glitch in the way the site is now presented? I had a typo in my post @87 and in frustration at my carelessness I pressed the ‘back’ key and was presented with my unposted comment, changed the typo and resubmitted. Hence, almost a duplicate @88.

    Gaufrid?

90. But @52 Muffin were you at Cambridge “with” Douglas Adams?

    Talking of dancing with men who danced with girls etc, I recall meeting someone who had known Richard Adams towards the end of his time in the Civil Service, where he remained for a short period after his success with Watership Down. By this time he was of course a bit of a celebrity but apparently remained very modest and somewhat diffident.

91. [Morpheus @90
    I don’t think either Dr. WhatsOn or I were claiming that – we were at different colleges (Adams was at St. John’s I think). However I did have a mutual friend with Adams!]

92. Much to my surprise, I finished this crossword faultlessly.
    Yes, I did a fair bit of guessing and ‘checking’.
    Douglas Adams was very popular when I was at university (but I never read the HHGTTG), and Watership Down I only experienced in the cinema.
    Then forgot about it – didn’t really like it.
    And so, for me (nor my crossword partner who did read the HHGTTG), this was not a write-in.
    I do feel a bit like Tony Santucci @67.
    There were 7 clues with Double Definitions (a bit like Paul in good old Mudd-mode).
    20ac is even a Triple Definition clue, and I considered 6,25 to be one of them too as there is no real wordplay.
    Unfortunately, 5 of these clues contain “Creation of 16 across”.
    For me, this borders on ‘unfair’ (as it turns this puzzle into a GK crossword for those not in the know ).
    One wonders why Paul’s champions-league crossword got so much stick, while he clued all the clubs involved in a proper cryptic way.
    Is it because that was football and this is literature?
    No complaints about the clues that needed a bit of thinking (like the Spoonerism or 18 and 22ac, 4 and 11dn) – all top notch.
    And only two clues in which we had anagrams (12ac and 16dn).
    Still, a puzzle that I found under par.
    Apparently unlike many others – so be it, then.
    Many thanks to manehi for the blog & Paul.

93. Thanks, Sil. You have set out a very reasonable critique – and taken the trouble to count the double (and triple) definitions. And taken the further trouble to compare these with the (as you say, and in my view very fair) way that the Champions League or European Cup winners were clued a few weeks ago. I think, as you suggest, Paul is playing to his audience: “that was football and this is literature”. (Though I might want to argue about whether this is literature, but that’s for another thread.)

    I’m always pleased to see your contributions, but I’m afraid they are missed by many regulars here, as you seem to keep late hours. I hope you’ll be back on Saturday to comment on the fairness (or otherwise) of Paul’s device in last week’s ‘prize’, which has received a bit of a preview above (#73 to #86 approx.).

94. Sil @92 (again) “…only two clues in which we had anagrams” – with so many comments below the line, you have probably missed my discovery of a third “anagram” (see my post @88) at 4d. I was so pleased to have “solved” the “anagram” and then found that it really existed…

95. Very disappointed not to see 42!

96. Cracking theme, although Mrs. JohnB had to remind me there’s more than one ADAMS ! Thankfully having read both books that didn’t hold me back, although I’d forgotten SILVER. I did wonder if Paul had managed to work Zaphod Beeblebrox or Slartibartfast into the grid, but you can’t have everything. Thanks to Paul and to Manehi

97. [ MaidenBartok@80 & 82 – Thanks for the links, and good luck with the WTC. My wife is currently working through the Cello Suites as her covid project, so I get to hear lots of enjoyable practicing. (I only tackle the easier ones.) ]

98. Sheffield@87 glad I wasn’t the only one to discover BOOMBOTS for 4dn

99. Copmus @92. Maybe Paul was [sub?]consciously harping back to last week’s prize with all its “twice 14” clues and TREBLING in 7d. Thrice 14 = 42…

100. [cellomaniac @97: Ooooh – lucky you. Those are gorg’ on speed. I get to hear my son whinging about when he might be let back to halls and the music from some revolting shoot-em-up game on a play-box-game-boy thingy. Can you tell it’s getting to me yet?! Piano time!]

101. Never read either book and not likely too. However the quizzer in me knew tboth authors so able to look them up thanks to Wikipedia. Made it a bit of a drudge though rather than the pleasure of sorting things out for myself

102. Fun puzzle. Just about familiar enough with WD, but adore Hitchhikers. The videogame is super-clever for what it’s worth (if very old-school). IIRC there’s a puzzle where you have to collect some tea, then drop it so that you now have “no tea”, and then pick up the tea again, so that you are in possession of both tea and “no tea” at the same time, proving you can deal with contradictory concepts. (And yet many folk seem to think videogames are just about shooting angry men in the face).

103. [MB @100: I knew about weed for reggae, LSD for hippie psychedelia and E’s for the trance/techno generation, but this is the first time I’ve seen it suggested that listening to Bach can be enhanced by the use of amphetamines 😉 ]

104. [essexboy @103: Give it a go sometime… Jammin’ with JS round here 😉 Makes all those wrong notes (SO many wrong notes) just float away…]

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