Guardian 28,355 – Paul

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Quite a tough one from Paul today, with some devious constructions that had me worried about whether I’d be able to explain everything. A couple of minor quibbles, but otherwise very enjoyable – thanks to Paul.

 
Across
1. SUBTLE Fine under hat, one invisible (6)
SUB (under) TILE (hat) less I (one) – fine as in “a fine distinction”
4. STIGMA Brand magistrate crooked after waiving of charge (6)
Anagram of MAGISTRATE less RATE (charge)
10. BEST SELLER Birdsong, perhaps, in worst dungeon, by the sound of it? (4,6)
BEST (synonym of “worst” in the sense of to beat) + homophone of “cellar”. Birdsong is a best-selling novel by Sebastian Faulks (who I was at college with, though I don’t remember him at all)
11. DIETER German slimmer (6)
Double definition, Dieter being a German name, short for Dietrich
12. INEDIBLE US politician in priest turned rotten (8)
BIDEN in ELI (biblical priest), all reversed
13. CHEWBACCA Champ leaves hirsute character (9)
CHEW (to champ) + BACCA (tobacco, leaves: this form is not in Chambers, though it’s attested online) – Chewbacca is a hair-covered character in the Star Wars films
15,18. BONESHAKERS Those contraptions would judder as he worked aboard loco (11)
(AS HE)* in BONKERS (mad, loco)
16,5. WINETASTER One enjoying a drink eats nuts in season (10)
EATS* in WINTER – listed as two words in Chambers
17. DIP SWITCH Dimmer student finally admitted to county town after pretty low grade (3,6)
D (low grade in an exam) + last letter of studenT in IPSWICH (county town of Suffolk). Today I learned that the DIP here is an acronym for Dual Inline Package: I think the definition is not accurate
21. PLAYLIST Numbers coming up, split spoils including deposit (8)
LAY (to deposit) in SPLIT* – “numbers coming up” as records on a radio programme, say
22. AU PAIR Foreign helper in middle of room, might you say? (2,4)
Homophone of “O pair”, or a pair of Os, as in the middle of rOOm (shades of the Four Candles sketch)
24. KILOGRAMME Measure girl, OK after reviewing contrary novel (10)
(GIRL OK)* + reverse of EMMA
25. LUKE Book search in Birmingham? (4)
“Look”, as said in a Birmingham accent
26. SUSSEX Work out the other royal title (6)
SUS (variant of SUSS, to work out) + SEX (“the other”). Prince Harry is Duke of Sussex
27. ASTERN Behind schoolmaster, necking drinks (6)
Hidden in (“drunk by”) schoolmASTER Necking
Down
1. SWEDISH European vegetable’s ending in Cornish pasty, possibly? (7)
[vegetabl]E in SW DISH (as a Cornish pasty might be described)
2. BIDET Tool securing unloaded device behind washer (5)
D[evic]E in BIT (drill bit – tool), with a Paulian definition
3. LIBERIA Country in deceit more fuelled by alcohol, reportedly? (7)
Homophone of “lie beerier”
6. GALLIPOLI Medicine served up in prison, one in disastrous campaign (9)
Reverse of PILL in GAOL + I (one), giving the failed campaign of WW1
7. AREOLAE Round rings, circle left in region on base of nipple (7)
O (circle) L[eft] in AREA (region) + [nippl]E, with “Round rings” as the definition. I originally thought “region on base of nipple” must be the definition, and was going to complain that it didn’t indicate the plural
8. A STITCH IN TIME What man in essence and woman in effect both have proverbially to solve the problem immediately? (1,6,2,4)
Not sure how to describe this, but “a stitch in time saves nine”, and NINE is hidden in both “maN IN Essence” and “womaN IN Effect”
14. WINDYPOPS Result of pat on baby’s back, turn remarkably soppy (9)
WIND (to turn) + SOPPY – baby-talk for burps
16. WALKIES Cryptic was like exercise for setter, say? (7)
(WAS LIKE)* – the setter is a dog, and the word recalls the late Barbara Woodhouse
19,9. CHICKEN FEED Small potatoes or peanuts, nibbles for hen party? (11)
Double (or triple) definition: Small potatoes and peanuts are both slang for something trivial, or a small amount of money, and a party of actual hens could nibble chicken feed
20. PIERCE Enter king, say, carrying head of Republican (6)
R[epublican] in PIECE (the king is a chess piece)
23. PULSE Seed perhaps mine, though not a tree, ultimately (5)
PAUL’S (mine!) less A + [tre]E

107 comments on “Guardian 28,355 – Paul”

  1. Agreed. Quite tough. I took DIP SWITCH to be that for a car’s headlights, in which case it works, I think. Thanks both

  2. I thought this was Paul on top form. A slow start with not much going in on the first pass, but a good grid construction helped the answers trickle in. AREOLAE managed to be directing and mis-directing at the same time, which is no mean feat.

    I’m not convinced DIP SWITCH works even in the context of car headlights, because it just changes the shape of the beam rather than the intensity. But it’s a very small nitpick.

    The sheer daftness of LUKE and WALKIES and BIDET (and WINDYPOPS and CHICKEN FEED) left me with a big grin, which is all you can ask for on a Friday. Thanks Andrew and Paul.

  3. Tough but doable and enjoyable as always.

    Lovely to find BIDET in their which allows me to (re)post Kenneth Williams https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MbZjzIg5w8

    I wondered where we were going with 19,9d for a moment with the four-letter word following CHICKEN but it was not to be…

    And 25a was just plain silly and funny as was 1d.

    However, as an electronics engineer and electronics hobbyist, 17a just will not do. DIP (as Andrew says) is Dual In Place, the layout used on a circuit board. A DIP SWITCH is a 1/0 switch usually used to set some kind of parameters on a circuit board and by definition is on or off, never “dimmer” which implies a variation (although we could now get into a discussion about how digital the world is in quantum terms but let’s not go there…). As the packaging slowly became the limiting factor in component size, the “through-hole” soldering was replaced by Surface Mount Devices, SMD a nightmare for the home enthusiast to deal with unless they are blessed with X-Ray vision…

    https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/dip-sip-switches/7182118/ for example.

    So this threw me for ages and put me in a grumpy mood. From which I’ve now recovered.

    Wiggers @1: I’ve always called this the “main beam” as the normal state is dipped and operating it undips the lights? My Russian grandmother used to call it “The Flasher” until I told her that that probably wasn’t a good idea…

    Thanks to Paul and Andrew!

  5. Wow – really tough! FOI was DIP SWITCH after lots of staring (MaidenBartok @3: surely this is fine, as the term is used for dipping a car’s lights). Lots of great Pauline clues, e.g. SUBTLE, AREOLAE, LUKE and BONESHAKERS. Many thanks to Paul and Andrew.

  6. Very enjoyable puzzle. Loved AU PAIR, BONESHAKERS, SWEDISH, BIDET and WINDYPOPS amongst others.

    Many thanks to Paul and Andrew

  8. I thought this had the spark of the old Paul but I came here to check on SUSS SEX and CHEW BACCA-both VAR issues in my view.
    Whereas in 1d i was trying to make SWED(E) IS H work so thanks Andrew- I suppose PASTY just about constitutes a dish (usually blotting paper to absorb a few pints of Palmers)
    Really good to see the old Paul back-there were some beauties esp INEDIBLE
    And thanks, Paul.

  10. This was like pulling hens’ teeth. Slow, difficult, occasionally painful with rare successes. Not that I didn’t enjoy it but I struggled this morning. And a dnf with the nho WINDYPOPS intersected with PLAYLIST and SUSSEX all defeating me. After dispatching the heavyweights Vlad and Nutmeg with reasonable ease as well as overcoming the cunning Qaos, I have been brought back to earth at the end of the week.

    I also struggled with some of the parsing: I was sure swede, the vegetable, and the ‘h’ at the end of Cornish featured in 1d; I had ‘in’, Eli and D(emocrat) all trying to get into INEDIBLE; although I know no fewer than three German Dieters, I was trying to connect it to the Diet of Worms (which will stir recent recollections for solvers of another recent puzzle)… So no better than a B at best for personal performance today.

    Of those I did solve and parse, loads of ticks: highlights were WINETASTER (no quibbles from me on any of the split solutions today), KILOGRAMME, LIBERIA for the outrageous homophone (and almost a verbal shout out to one of our regulars), GALLIPOLI and the beautiful WALKIES. COTD though is split between two lovely devices resulting in PULSE and the fabulous AU PAIR.

    My only quiblet (being a dipstick when it comes to dip switches) is LUKE. As one born on the edge of Brum and pretty much a lifelong Midlander, I don’t recognise that pronunciation as local and would have moved it North somewhat. But that might just be me.

    Thanks Paul and Andrew

  11. Have to admit to a little semi-cheating, and I am not sure I could have finished this without the check button. Entertaining in places, infuriating in others.

    Thanks to Paul and Andrew

  12. Hmmm – I was really enjoying the tussle until I got to CHEWBACCA where the BACCA really grated – similarly WINDYPOPS and WINETASTER as one word? From that point on I just lost confidence in the setting. Shame really as 87.5% of it was excellent

  13. Paul on absolutely top form. The first time through I think I managed to crack about four clues, and thought each of them was brilliant, eventually deciding that putting a tick by nearly everything was getting a bit silly.
    As a Brummie, I had a chuckle about 25ac – eventually someone, and it’ll probably be Paul, is going to make use of the fact that people in Birmingham travel on buzzes. Which aren’t bendy and have nothing to do with Boris. And as a resident of Norfolk, I was amused by dimmer students and pretty low grades referencing the grotty town in the next county. Though like Paul, I had always assumed that when you dipped your headlights, the dipped beam was less bright than the high beam as well as being pointed downwards. One of the incidental benefits of this site is the amount of information you pick up as you go – respect to MaidenBartok @3!
    Not quite sure CHEWBACCA is fair – is knowledge of Star Wars characters now required GK. The hilarious WINDYPOPS conjured up Patsy Byrne’s gloriously daft Nursie in Blackadder, which was a happy memory.
    And of course, it just wouldn’t have been Paul without a nipple and a bit of the other…
    Thanks, Paul, for setting me up nicely for another day in Brexitania, and Andrew for clarifying the odd one I had difficult in parsing completely.

  17. Enjoyed this, as I always do with Paul’s crosswords, though it wasn’t perfect for some of the reasons given above. WALKIES was a treat, ditto BIDET. Couldn’t parse A STITCH… at all, so thank you Andrew.

    I had thought there might be a theme with CHEWBACCA and LUKE. Re the latter, I agree with you PostMark @10 – it sounds more like a scouse accent than brummie to me.

    Thanks Andrew and Paul (and to those above for the reminder of Nursie. Such a brilliant character!).

  18. Kev @16 & NeilH @13: interesting to see early divergence of opinion. Kev – I’m assuming you’re not in agreement with look/luke? I’ve been saying the word out loud to myself all morning – but don’t actually have any ‘proper’ Brummies nearby with whom I can test it! Might have to tune in to BRMB (if it’s still going) and see if that helps…

  19. I am a Brummie – It is said pretty much as the rest of the country says it. If anything its a cross between Look and Luck. Luke seems more Scouse to me

  22. Totally agree with Postmark@10. No real Brummie would say look like that. Maybe Paul is basing his idea of the Birmingham accent on Peaky Blinders!

  23. Glad to find that others found this tough; it took me some time before I had more than a couple. Never heard of WINDYPOPS before, just wind and burps and possetting. Quite a few unparsed also, so thanks Andrew. I tried the same as copmus@8 for SWEDISH. Lots to like as incl CHEWBACCA, although I did initially try to see how Esau would fit. Thanks to Paul

  24. Thanks Paul and Andrew
    Similar experience to PostMark @10. It never flowed, and I didn’t parse several. I also tried to make SWED(e) ISH work for 1d.
    Another quibble: a WINE TASTER (FOI) might well not enjoy the drink – she might slate it in her rating!
    BIDET was favourite, for the definition.

  25. I’m with all those who found this tough but enjoyably so. (I hope you didn’t need the check button for 1dn, beery @11 😉 )

    The enjoyment was enhanced by the Two Rs sketch (thanks, Andrew) and then two more from commenters (thanks, MaidenBartok and NeilH) – enough to put anyone in a good mood at the end of the week. (I was amused to hear ‘Mon Repos’ in both of the first two.)

    I won’t list all my ticks – I’ll just mention DIP SWITCH, for the surface (loved your comment, NeilH – I lived in Norfolk in my teenage years).

    Many thanks to Paul for the fun and to Andrew for a great blog.

  26. The dip switch on our our first car, ’52 Holden, was a big foot-operated floor-button. Yes, a beam-alterer, not really a dimmer, but I don’t mind, worth the memory. Memory for Chewbacca not quite as old, but fond too, via the kids. This took hours, even with a bit of guess and check, so yes, chewy from Paul, whose behind washer was typical fun (ours is redundant now, sadly). Agree re 6d, and 7d was sly. 25ac reminds me of Bea Campbell, it’s how she says boook. All fun, will now read the above, between overs. Thanks both.

  27. I’m not convinced by “rotten” as a synonym for INEDIBLE – yes, rotten food would be so, but many other things beside food may be rotten (wood, leaves, dirty scoundrels…)
    Anyway, that’s a minor quibble in a very enjoyable puzzle: Paul in good form with trademarks BIDET and SUSSEX, groanworthy homophones and a visit to the nursery for WINDYPOPS.
    Took me ages to spot the O-pair and to work out where the second E had gone in SWEDE-ISH. Thanks Andrew for explaining A STITCH IN TIME and PULSE.
    General Knowledge is a peculiar thing. Not everyone knows that Birdsong is a BEST SELLER, but it’s surprising (to me anyway) how many people have never met CHEWBACCA. Not everybody knows what “everybody knows.”

  28. [Re the Two Ronnies sketch, they might have trouble getting it past the Facebook censor these days, with all those references to “(h)oes”.]

  30. bodycheetah @20: you’re a brave man, risking the wrath of culturally offended Brummagem! 😀 But, then again, that seems a pretty accurate depiction of life in our house … Except my thigh high silver boots are strictly for going down the pub and are, therefore, sadly gathering dust in my closet.

  31. [Bodycheetah @20: I have just laughed uncontrollably on our weekly Faculty Zoom meeting without video but apparently with the mute button NOT activated…]

  32. Yes, Kev @19 and others – the Look/Luke homophone doesn’t work precisely, but I suspect the same is true of an awful lot of clues that purport to reference the way Londoners speak.
    There is fun to be had from the Black Country accent (I. like Kev, am a Brummie, and one thing that distinguishes the Brummie is knowing that it’s distinct from the Black Country). Man goes into a department store in Wolverhampton (or Dudley, or wherever) and asks for the toy department. And is directed to the menswear section.
    Oi’ll get moi coat…

  33. As someone who grew up in Cornwall I’ve always thought of pasties as things that you hold in your hand to eat, so it took me ages to suss out the parsing of 1D. Fair enough, though. As for LUKE, Birmingham accents ain’t my kipper tie. Got it too, though.

  34. Is it me or has this been a tough week? Thanks Paul and Andrew. This was a real challenge but satisfying when Swedish and Subtle finally went in.
    BTW, I had a friend who said look as Luke and he was from Wigan.

  35. Did anyone else think 2d might have been Spade, with Spa as a sort of washer. Probably not. Made 19d/9a ending in an A problematical. Should have realised Paul was up to his usual saucy humour with BIDET

  36. My experience was exactly like PostMark’s @10, with the same three unsolved clues at the end. Unlike gladys @27, AU PAIR was for rather a long time the only clue I had solved! I had recourse to a thesaurus in a few places where I couldn’t make any headway.

    Perhaps my brain wasn’t in gear today as I had no particular difficulty with any of the previous puzzles this week. Despite some excellent clues (I did like BIDET) I’m afraid I found this too much of a slog to be enjoyable.

    Sorry, Paul

  38. DIP SWITCH is also slang for an idiot, so the clue half works that way, though you would have to include “student” to make it a noun and then it would be doing double duty. So that’s two clues with allusion (AREOLAE being the other). I always struggle when the two elements of a double definition are pronounced differently (as in DIETER). It is interesting that the convention is that homophones (dodgy or otherwise) have to be signalled but there print counterparts not.
    I agree Bolton would be more accurate for the pronunciation of Luke, but then we would have missed Slade, so no complaints.

  42. Thank you Paul for a terrific workout this morning and Andrew for explaining 8d. Luke in 25a would work perfectly for Stoke on Trent rather than Birmingham.

  43. [Cornish pasties were made for tin miners. There was savoury at one end and, usually, sweet (jam, for example) at the other. The pasty was held by the pastry ridge to eat it; this was then discarded, so that the dirt from the miners’ hands wasn’t injested.]

  44. Should have mentioned that not having come across CHEWBACCA and WINDYPOPS before, the SE quarter was rather impenetrable. A DNF today therefore. And someone’s mixing up Slade with my incorrect Spade. Saw Slade and Noddy H belting it out some time in the Mid Sixties on Eel Pie Island…

  45. Re 25a. PostMark is spot on. I’m from Stoke (where people also refer to buzzes) and the pronunciation of ‘look’ is much closer to LUKE than in the West Mids/Brum. I’ve never heard anyone from Brum say it in the way Paul supposes. But then again, from a setter who unilaterally decides that BACCA is a word meaning tobacco, it’s not surprising. It’s all up north eh Paul?

  48. Tough but great fun.

    I particularly enjoyed BONESHAKERS, AU PAIR and BIDET. As some others, I didn’t parse SWEDISH properly – I got hung up on the H of Cornish.

    Collins has: dimmer switch in Automotive Engineering or dip switch, so that should stop any controversy. Wow, I wouldn’t have seen the ‘nines’ in the clue for 8D in a month of Sundays!

    Thanks to Paul for the entertainment and to Andrew for the unravelling.

  50. Found this hard in a completely different way – the setter makes such a difference. After managing to get Chewbacca early on (a life long SW fan here) was looking thereafter for a theme. Despite that I still didn’t get Luke – a new link to “book” for me as a newbie. Also a note to Copmus @8 surely you mean Tribute or the like, Palmers being Dorset and we don’t do pasties here!!!

  51. Ronald @44: re Spade/Slade, I was pulling your leg at 37. Though, on that garden digging theme, the band did produce Nobody’s Tools in 1976 and, of course, featured vocalist Noddy Hoelder and drummer Don Trowel. (Sadly, try as I might, I haven’t been able to work the orthodontically challenged Dave Hill in anywhere!)

  52. Very much a typical Paul – a few liberties taken, a spot of toilet humour, some ingenious clues and at least two proper groans or laughs (depending on your sense of humour).

    Lots to enjoy here, but I’m very grateful for the explanation of 8d, which I had pencilled in early, consistently confirmed by crossers, but still couldn’t make any sense of! It’s strangely encouraging to be caught so off balance by a clue, as it means we’re not all just repeating tired formulas.

  53. AnnieClem @50: you’re not alone in your search for a SW theme. CHEWBACCA was actually my way in and BEST SELLER came soon after. LUKE, wherever he comes from, is of course another. I did look to see whether Yoda fitted any of the four letter spaces!

  54. Re AREOLAE
    “Round rings” as def is fine.
    The wordplay “circle left in region on base of nipple” is also fine.
    But I am not able to reconcile one with the other.
    The latter part seems to suggest areola.
    Or is it that we should see the two separately?

  55. Why the ignorant cavilling? BACCA is in Collins as tobacco (informal). Nothing unilateral about that.

    I took DIP SWITCH to mean a switch which makes a light brightness dip, with the electronic circuit meaning as a red herring. Rather neat, I thought.

    [re LUKE/LOOK: the explorer Sir Vivian Fuchs reported once giving a talk at a Yorkshire event hosted by the mayor.
    Mayor: “And now I’ll hand you over to our guest, Sir Vivian Fux” (my phonetic spelling).
    Sir VF: “Actually Mr Mayor, it’s pronounced ‘Fooks’ “.
    Mayor: “I’ll have no swearing in my town hall!”]

  56. Old Tom @29, blaise @33 and Bodycheetah @49 – I’m reminded of a very early Tramp clue:

    ’70s clothing sounds like Noddy Holders’s cup of tea (6,3)’

  57. Thanks to Paul and Andrew. This was really hard. I had a lot unfilled this morning and had to use the check button a lot.

    Is Prince Harry still Duke of Sussex? I thought he’d resigned from the Royal Family.

    Never heard of windypops.

    Anybody else work on 23 down by trying to use the fact that both a seed and a mine are a pit?

    For a Star Wars them, what about Luke Skywalkies?

    Could somebody explain 2d wrong answers Slade/Spade and what it has to do with accents, which figure way over in 25a? Having no idea of an accent from either Birmingham or the Black Country I’m a bit at sea.

  59. Valentine @57: I think Spade/Slade is a red herring, or should that be a kipper? Spade is an alternative solution to 2d, albeit incorrect as it doesn’t fit the crossers. Slade is a Midlands band and 25a Luke was suggested as sounding like a Midlands pronunciation which prompted discussion. Birmingham is the largest city in the Midlands and the Black Country an area historically on the city’s edge. Birmingham has an accent and the Black Country a dialect and locals are, as you’d anticipate, acutely aware of the difference. As for deliberately confusing Spade/Slade, that was just me playing with words I’m afraid so a rabbit hole to avoid. Hope that’s helpful!

    BTW, Luke Skywalkies – brilliant!

  60. I always found CHEWBACCA OK to look at but painful to listen to. I think if I ever had to spend time in his company I would be tempted to quote Ronan Keating.

    Like ngaiolaurenson @23 my first ‘hairy’ thought was Esau – which gives me an excuse, following the Ronnies, Kenneth Williams, Blackadder etc, to share one more sketch 😉

    8d is ingenious but I don’t think it quite works. A STITCH IN TIME is something you ‘do’, not ‘have’, and there’s also a singular/plural mismatch. How about:

    ‘What a man, in essence (or a woman, in effect) does proverbially to solve the problem immediately?’

    With NeilH acknowledging the inexactitude it now looks like a universal thumbs-down for look/LUKE in Brum; like JerryG @34 I always associated it with Lancashire.

    And doesn’t KILOGRAMME look odd?

    All the above makes me sound grumpy, which is the very opposite of how I feel. I thought it was a brilliant workout and 90% delightful. Thanks Paul and Andrew.

  61. Well that was fun. Paul on great form. Got completely misdirected on AREOLAE, confidently putting in Aurolae, which meant I deleted BEST SELLER that I had been so pleased to get earlier! Got it all sorted in the end, but that was brilliant misdirection. SWEDISH – I thought the vegetable was sort of disappearing into the dish. So take a swede and slide it into the dish until it’s end has disappeared. Apologies if no one knows what on earth I’m talking about! It works for me.

  62. essexboy@60
    You have been brave enough to suggest a clue for 8dn. Fine.
    At the same time, I wonder if Guardian setters have any word limit for the paper to be able to use the puzzle in the space provided for it in the printed edition. Can each clue be as long as they like? How would we know?
    .

  64. Thansk Andrew for attempting to explain 8d and identifying the key inclusions (and essexboy @60 for improving the clue) and plenty more parts of things, I needed to check a lot along the way today, starting with CHEWBACCA as I have only ever heard BACCY. Agree with muffin@24 that a wine taster may not enjoy all he/she samples and may not even drink that much of it. And thanks for the details MaidenBartok@3 and laughs bodycheetah@20.
    As for LUKE, I’m almost a Brummie with plenty of relatives there and in the Black Country and I couldn’t believe that Paul chose it rather than say Edinburgh:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yy9GmieAEaQ
    (eg 25 seconds or so in)
    But while my overall experience was not far from that of PostMark@10 I thought AREOLAE, AU PAIR, PLAYLIST and PULSE were great, thanks Paul.

  65. Bit of a slog today. I think that I was not on Paul’s wavelength.

    New: areolae; the novel BIRDSONG (= a best seller by Sebastian Faulks) – thank you, google; WINDYPOPS

    Did not parse SWEDISH, AU PAIR, A STITCH IN TIME; EX = the other? in 26ac – I had only ever heard of SUSS = work out

    Favourite: BONESHAKERS, PLAYLIST (loi)

  66. Rishi @ 54

    circle left in region on base of nipple >

    O L in AREA > AREOLA ‘on base of nipplE’

    > AREOLAE

  67. Oh Paul, “behind washer” is a cracker!
    For those thinking Luke is a scouse pronunciation, absolutely not. We say luck, with a German-style chhh at the end if really common. Only actors getting it wrong ever say luke.

  68. grantinfreo @26. Yes, I can remember driving many cars with a foot-operated DIP SWITCH. As others have pointed out, the effect of the switch was to change the shape of the main beam so as not to dazzle the drivers of oncoming traffic. From the point of view of an observer, the car’s headlights would get dimmer, so I don’t see a problem with the definition.

    I initially rejected SWEDISH as a pasty is not a DISH (see muffin @43 for the reason), and I then plumped for LETTISH (the vegetable lettuce with an ending like that of Cornish?), but when I finally clicked on CHICKEN FEED there was only one word that would fit. Still don’t like it, though (but trishincharente’s parsing @61 is just fab!).

    Had never heard of WINDYPOPS but the wordplay was clear enough. Thanks to andrew for the parsing of 8d, which I’m still not convinced is a good clue.

    NeilH @13. I’ve never seen Star Wars but I had no problem with CHEWBACCA (and I’m sure I’ve heard smokers refer to “me bacca” in the past). And I had the same thought as muffin @24 about the WINETASTER’s potential disenjoyment of the drink.

    [Petert @39 & Maidenbartok @4&41: their/there/they’re was something I never struggled with when writing with a pen on paper, but on a keyboard my fingers nearly always go for the wrong one.]

    [Goulkeers @55. My grandfather told me that joke about Fuchs more than 50 years ago, but in his version the setting was Liverpool.]

    Struggled to get on Paul’s wavelength at first, but it was worthwhile for the many amusing pdms, especially ‘behind washer’.

  69. FOI 16/5, especially liked 22ac 23d and 15/18.

    Had to reveal 14d, I had “wind” as result of pat and “y” as baby’s back, and never heard of windypops before. Ditto 25ac, I’m just about at the point where I can do the non-rhotic homophones like “lie beerier” = “liberia” but regional accents are beyond me! As for GK, I find Star Wars more common than Faulks, was trying to figure out if there was some clothing shop named Birdsong that was a VEST SELLER or something.

    Very good fun–thanks for the puzzle Paul and the blog Andrew.

  70. Brilliant all round. 11, 13, and 14 were all gorgeously wicked. You use the dip switch to dim the headlights. They don’t really dim, just change direction, but that’s the common usage, at least it was fifty-odd years ago.

  71. Simon S@66
    Thanks. The point that I was trying to make was that if we forget the mechanics of wordplay, the wp part suggests the singular areola. I am uncomfortable with that juxtaposition.

  72. In the 70s I had a couple of half-timbered Morris Travellers with dip switches (buttons on the floor, on the left of the clutch as I remember, to dip the headlights). Like matt w @69 I toyed with ‘wind’ and the ‘y’ and hadn’t heard of WINDYPOPS, but it sounded about right and on checking online it was confirmed, although usually as two words. WALKIES is a tremendous clue, as others have said.

  75. Rishi @71. Yes, I see that there is a definition in the plural and the wordplay ends with ‘nipple’ in the singular, and you say you are “uncomfortable with that juxtaposition.” But isn’t this just part of the setter’s normal misdirection? If you remove that arrow from his quiver, what is he to do? Surely Paul is entitled to make you uncomfortable?

  77. [NeilH @ 32 I’m awful at accents, but also have a joke that lets me “do” Brummie:

    An orphaned elephant in Dudley Zoo decides he wants to visit the Elephant’s Graveyard, and find the resting place of his parents. So one night he breaks free of his cage and makes his way to Africa. The journey is long and tiring, and when he gets there it’s too dark to search, so he lays down and goes to sleep. In the morning he gets up and starts his search. Soon he bumps into an old elephant, here to see out his last days. “You’re very young” said the old elephant. “Did you come here to die?”. And the orphan replies “No, I came here yester die”.

    I’ve got another relevant one, but again it needs to be told rather than read. A man goes into a bakery and asks the guy behind the counter “Do you do Ciabatta?” They guy says “No, but I’ll give it a go. Aaaaauuugh!, Grraaagh! Arrrooooo!”. That will mean nothing to those who know nothing about Star Wars. (I’ve been told my complete inability to do an impression of Chewbacca only makes this joke funnier when I tell it. I think those people just like seeing me make a tit of myself trying.)]

  78. Look/Luke brought back the memory of a family move from not far south of Birmingham to Mid-Cheshire. I was 5 years old at the time and warned in advance that my accent would be incomprehensible to them and vice versa. And, quite coincidentally, it was explained to me that luk would become luke.

    So even though the clue was diametrically false, it did lead me to the answer.

  79. I tried, without success, to find an appropriate video/sound clip to demonstrate the rich vein of Black Country Aynuk and Ayli (Enoch and Eli) jokes as well as the full glory of the dialect. There are some clips – and a few potentially interesting longer programmes – but none that do it as pithily as this community might appreciate. There is plenty of written material and it’s worth checking out. One of my favourites has always been the fishing trip to the cut where one of them swears to have caught a whale. After a fair degree of No you didn’t/Yes I did, the catch turns out be a bicycle whale. My favourite non A&A would have to be the old chestnut: “Do yow know the difference between a buffalo and a bison? Yow can wash yow’s ands in a basin.” Boo Boom!

  80. [MarkN @77
    Sorry, going even further off-topic. You’ve reminded me of the definition of an Australian as the kind of guy that if you ask “Can you play the piano?” will reply “Don’t know, mate – I’ll give it a go”!]

  82. ‘Yow can wash yow’s ands in a bison’ of course! How many times do we curse the predictive text on this site…

  84. Super crossword, for a ‘tricky Paul’ that went remarkably well. Yes, a DNF, but sometimes it’s a DNS with Paul.
    Thanks Andrew for explaining some parsings and the ones (mainly in the SW) that I missed.

  85. Postmark @10 I wondered about LUKE too. I have spent ages trying to imagine how Frank Skinner would say it (yes, he’s from the Black Country – but close enough) and I can’t make LUKE = LOOK. I went to uni in Birmingham too.

  86. [HoofItYouDonkey @84: Oh dear – I think I need to stop working for a bit. I looked at your statement and thought “What’s he talking about Domain Name Service for?” Matron! Matron!]

    MasterBela has just reminded me that there used to be a brand of wind reducing suff for babies/toddelrs called “Windy-Pops” that we used to give young Bartok Jr (he’s 19 now and as it is “alcohol free” that would never do). Discontinued by the look of it:

    https://www.healthstuff.co.uk/en/Natures-Answer-Windy-Pops/m-2157.aspx

  87. My father’s first car, an Austin, already 20 years old when he got it in 1962, had a floor mounted dip switch. When pressed it would operate solenoids (I have since learnt) that would physically move (or dip) the headlight reflectors downwards to prevent dazzling oncoming drivers. Which is why the switch on modern cars is called a dip switch.

  89. I enjoyed this a lot. Favourites were the country ones, SWEDISH, LIBERIA and DIETER, along with BIDET, which was a gem.
    I agree that 8 doesn’t do what it says on the tin. I missed the hidden Nines when parsing, but the answer was obvious with a few crossers. How about instead “What man in essence and woman in effect both have in common with this, proverbially?”
    Oh and I now know more than I ever dreamt of about the inner workings of dip switches and the finer points of accents “up north” 😀 .
    Thanks, Paul and Andrew, for Friday’s lunchtime entertainment.

  90. Great puzzle – lots of really neat clues (BIDET!). I was defeated by WINDYPOPS – never heard of this term before (I got the ….YPOPS though!).
    Also, I parsed SUSSEX as SUSS + EX (other).
    Thanks Paul and Andrew.

  91. I’m a bit late to the party but being a Black Countryman (or rather mon) myself, with also a fair knowledge of Brummigenese, I can categorically say that round by we it’s pronounced luk. Those who say it as luke/lewk live further north from Stoke (where my wife is from) upwards. In fact they have the famous test phrase “Let’s have a lewk in the cewkery bewk” to check if you’re local or not.

    BTW As Slade have been mentioned:

    a) my cousin claims she once went out with their drummer (Don Powell) but way before they were famous and still rehearsing in a local church hall. Maybe not the same level of name dropping as Andrew’s Sebastian Faulks connection …

    b) the inspiration for their hit Skweeze Me, Pleeze Me (Black Country legend Reg Keirle) sadly died earlier this week. For over 50 years Reg was pianist in residence at the Trumpet pub in Bilston, a world (in)famous jazz institution and still the home of the Slade fan club. Reg was also a very funny comedian for a number of years (mainly in the local dialect which is why he was never as well known further afield as he should have been) and I was privileged to be at his very last stand up gig a few years back – and he definitely never ever said luke!

  92. To us, this crossword looks as if it was set solely for the benefit of someone who already has access to the answers, and ‘only’ has to work out the parse. The online version then! Spouse and I have been successfully cracking Guardian crosswords in the paper version for years over lunch/supper etc, but now there are far too many like this, far too difficult, horribly dispiriting affairs. Similar comments for the Vlad earlier this week, massively popular here, but what a slog that was for us, although at least we finished it in the end (albeit only by going online and pressing that CHECK button) unlike today when we just gave up.
    I think we’re pretty normal guardian solvers, and lately I am really concerned that we’re being elbowed out.

  94. Caroline @92. That’s really unfortunate. Taking your examples of Paul’s and Vlad’s puzzles: yes, they are usually extremely tricky, and I sympathise if you find them simply too hard. I’m not at the top end in terms of solving ability, but have the time and inclination to persevere, and I actually prefer a really tough challenge, so I greatly enjoy them.

    I guess your post really needs the attention of Gaufrid or the Guardian Crossword Editor, whom I think is Hugh Stephenson. You might like to re-post it in the General Discussion page, where it probably belongs.

  95. Caroline @92, that’s just how I feel today. Solved fairly well on paper this morning but ground to a halt in the SW with three left. Occasionally glanced at them but none ever made sense. Given that one ended up as WINDYPOPS, who can blame me. Such a shame – I had some genuine ‘laugh out’ moments earlier, but ended rather dispirited.

  96. Too tough/obscure for me. Often I enjoy Paul but this felt way past his normal level of ‘inventiveness’. On reading the answers I’m wondering if Paul has given up splitting two word clues into the constituent parts, numerically? I’m only partly joking.

    I do find it odd that someone who uses so many modern / slang expressions can’t find a way not to use “hat = tile” (one of my pet ‘No one has used that word in real life in 100 years’ dislikes)?

    Thanks Andrew for your great work unpicking and explaining this.

  97. Caroline @92. I sympathise. I have those days sometimes, especially with Paul, but it can be any of them really. And then other days something just clicks and everything seems to fill itself in. I find it sometimes helps to just stop and leave my newspaper on the table and go and do something else. Very often just looking at a clue with fresh eyes and brain unlocked really does help.

    I hardly ever solve online as the “check” button is too tempting! I think the range of difficulties is variable, and this is probably for two reasons: first, it is policy at the Guardian, and usually Monday is easier, though occasionally the Saturday puzzle can be a little easier too. Secondly, it very much depends sometimes if you can get on the setter’s wavelength, and this might be to do with general knowledge, or a theme that you recognise, or just that the definition immediately brings to mind a synonym which turns out to be right.

    Do keep plugging away, things will improve I’m sure.

  98. Caroline @92: a different thought on the experience you describe. We the solvers, the setters and, indeed, the crosswords too, have often been at this game for some time. Some have been solving for five or six decades. It’s not surprising that we’ve all built up a fair amount of experience. And, should we choose – and, I know, many don’t – we have very easy access to all sorts of reference data that was less available in the past. This logically leads to the difficulty level of the average crossword gradually increasing. There will, thank goodness, always be newcomers to the game and, I guess, it makes entry a bit harder for them. But there are places where easier puzzles can be found and many will cut their teeth there. (I was a happy DT solver for many years before, I feel, ‘graduating’ to the G).

    Conventions have become established, patterns recognisable, codewords understood. Synonyms are well-known and ‘chestnuts’ either delighted in or groaned about. One only has to read a single day’s blog here to encounter all kinds of comments acknowledging our shared history of the cruciverbal craft. And good setters like Paul, Vlad, Nutmeg … well, frankly pretty much all those we are lucky to enjoy on this site (and I extend that to the other publications on other pages) … those good setters are doing two things. They continue the tradition of timeless clues that are just gems of wordplay, misdirection and clever surfaces but they also seek to break new ground and challenge us with devices that bewilder, confuse yet frequently delight. Whilst I often share your sense of frustration at a puzzle I just don’t get, more often than not I end up with the delayed pleasure of a slow dawning of a theme or the breaking of a code. And that makes it worth it for me – and also inclined to cut setters a bit of slack on the odd occasion that, for me, it still just doesn’t work.

  99. I don’t think everyone has listened properly to Caroline, who says she is an experienced solver: “Spouse and I have been successfully cracking Guardian crosswords in the paper version for years over lunch/supper etc, but now there are far too many like this, far too difficult, horribly dispiriting affairs. Similar comments for the Vlad earlier this week …”

    I happen to have struggled with the same two puzzles this week. I usually enjoy Paul’s offerings; this one would have been enjoyable too, I’m sure, if I had been able to get a firm foothold. Maybe on another day it would have been different. Today, I was just baffled – and I still can’t really see how 8d works.

    Some of today’s clues were imaginative and I can appreciate “au pair”, for instance. But being completely stuck is not a great way to spend a day!

  100. [Caroline @92: Paul is hit or miss with me. His recent prize was a hit, this crossword, a miss. To enjoy his genius more consistently check out his alter ego, Mudd, in the FT. His puzzles there almost never fail to satisfy me.]

  101. Caroline@92: I have to do these online anyway (don’t get the Graun on paper in the states) and I do find that, when one is giving me a hard time, it’s much more fun for me if I shamelessly use the checks when necessary. For instance on this one I knew that 25ac would be one I couldn’t get so I revealed it, and that helped me with 23d which was a nice aha! When I started I was revealing about half of a typical Paul but I’ve whittled it down a lot as I’ve got used to it.

  103. A little late but a final comment on dip switches. Operation of this switch does not cause anything to move to alter the direction of the beam. it merely switches off the main beam bulb or the secondary filament in the dipped bulb. So, reducing the number of bulbs from four to two, the total light output is technically ‘dimmed.’

  104. Caroline@92: I only ever solve on-line if my printer is broken. When I have to get up in the night for the usual reason I print off the Guardian, FT, and Independent puzzles, and take them back to bed. Solving one or more composes my mind for more sleep.

    I found this at the easier end of Paul’s scale, and I struggle to see what people found difficult about it. It came in at about 15 minutes. I admit I could not finish the Vlad, a setter whose wavelength I find hard to tune in to. I certainly do not feel the overall difficulty is getting harder. I started solving (and setting) in the 1970s, when the Guardian setters included Lavengro (usually Thursdays) whom I never once solved, Gemini, whose style I disliked and mostly gave up on, Bunthorne, who took years to cotton on to but became one of my two absolute favourites, and Araucaria, brilliant and always solvable but a very slow solve till I got used to him.

    I can recommend Paul’s Zoom meetings on the days his puzzles are published. You can register for them on Johnhalpern.co.uk and discuss any individual clues or aspects you find problematic.

  105. As a (proud) adopted Brummie, I entirely agree with Kev et al. It should be Lancashire – think (or hear) David Lloyd from Accrington…!

  106. Very late in the day but I finally decided to look at the blog. It turned out I had many of the right answers with words that fitted together in the grid; I just couldn’t relate them to the clues eg 1a, 10a, 15a, 8d, 19d, and others I could only partially parse. I didn’t know CHEWBACCA. I have the Guardian delivered ( it arrives about 7.30 am) . I wonder how many people actually solve on paper without the convenience of check buttons etc . I’m with Caroline. I’ve been solving crosswords since Sixth form (60+ years ago) and think some of these puzzles seem to be getting too difficult to solve in a day. Someone said they did this in 15 minutes. That I don’t believe. I enjoyed Paul’s Christmas special which I did over several days but the clues themselves were straightforward. It’s been a tough week.

  107. If anyone actually pronounced Luke the way Paul meant then surely by the law of averages one of us would say “that’s how I pronounce it and I’m from X”

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