Guardian 28,366 / Matilda

111 comments on “Guardian 28,366 / Matilda”

1. Nice puzzle! I particularly enjoyed WATERCOLOURS, UNWEANED, DISCOMBOBULATED (as Eileen says, a lovely word) and LANDSCAPE. Many thanks to Matilda and Eileen.

2. Thanks both. 17a LOI – trying to think of a part of the body that would fit ?A?I? until the penny dropped.

3. I loved this, especially 1, 2, 12,20 and 2 and 5 down. But they were all good and for once I got them all without help from Bradford or google. Thank you Matilda (and Eileen for parsing 26 for me – LOI)

4. A pleasant start to the day.
   26ac is even more straightforward than I had realised – I had though the “intelligence” was the sort you received over the wireless during WW2, namely WT (Wireless Telegraphy) and had I + BEE backed in that – but obviously Eileen has it right.
   Yes, 5dn is a delight. Whether it’s exclusively North American I do not know, but I do recall Bobby Fischer writing in his 60 Memorable Games back in 1969 that his opponent’s pawns in one game had been “discombobulated”. He was a deeply unpleasant human being in many ways (as well as being a deeply troubled one), but the man could write.
   11ac, 20ac and 8dn in particular were good fun, too.
   Thanks to Matilda and Eileen.

5. Tripped up on 13a, 22d for a bit because I’ve always spelt it PIRI-PIRI or PILI-PILI but I know the PERI-PERI is more common in the UK (and I’m just trying to work out why on earth I use the “E” because I can’t think where else I would have picked that up from…)

   Slow start for me, but I think that is me rather than the puzzle and once the grey-matter had kicked in it was a gentle stroll.

   Thanks Matilda and Eileen!

6. Thanks Matilda and Eileen
   Yes, a nice puzzle; not too taxing, although I got in a bit in a bit of a mess with parsing FURROW, missing “fox or rabbit” to give FUR.. JURORS was my favourite. DISCOMBOBULATED was FOI – the anagram just jumped out at me, and I agree that it’s a lovely word.
   Not sure what “leading to” contributes to 4d. The clue would have been fine as “Tweets crazy speech”.

7. I agree with Eileen’s comments, and would add UNWEANED and LANDSCAPE to my favourites.
   More a general comment than a quibble: there are not always 12 JURORS; e.g. in Scotland there are 15 jurors in a criminal trial.
   Thanks Eileen and Matilda.

8. Every Monday I hope that Matilda will be the Quiptic setter, as the clues are always well-crafted as Eileen says. After the recent plethora of Epsom Salts, I briefly thought 3d was going to be a synonym of laxative but, thankfully, not. I wonder if the clue for 7d was inspired by French attempts to ban the burqini?

9. A pleasant and not too taxing crossie, for sure. The top half went in quicker than the bottom. Lots of nice clues that others have mentioned (especially DISCOMBOBULATED and DEFAMATION), but I would also like to highlight BONELESS, which made me smile. Thanks, Matilda and Eileen.

10. I thought this was perfectly – well, 97% – fine, if a bit bland. The one sticking point for me, and I’m not saying it is wrong, just unexpected, is equating BLESS with “be grateful for” in 14a. I know some people say “bless you” when they are grateful for what the other person has done, but that doesn’t mean they mean the same thing, or does it? If I say “damn it” when I’m upset that I just hit my thumb with a hammer, does that mean to damn means to be upset?

11. Très agréable. Took a while to get on Matilda’s wavelength but, once there, surfed home happily.

    Enjoyed the BURQA/BIKINI gag.

    Many thanks, both.

12. All the best clues have already been mentioned especially JURORS and BIKINI raised a juvenile smile. PERI-PERI jumped out as I seem to be buying it for my son every other day! Ta Matilda & Eileen

13. Was trying to think of something slang for eggs, a dozen to a box, until the crossers fixed that. But, yes, a gentle potter with many familiar devices, though the adverb carlessly is a bit like something from ISIHAC. Peri-peri only vaguely familiar [although I’m partial to a bit of heat, like a good vindaloo, or a nasi goreng that slowly works its way into you until you throb]. Nice one Matilda, and thanks Eileen.

14. A fun crossword.
    Discombobulated strikes me as the sort of word that Ken Dodd might have invented.
    Bikini is perhaps ‘nearly minimal attire’, but it was clear enough. A thong would be minimal. (For any Aussies, I don’t mean footwear).

15. Dr.+WhatsOn@10. I thought the same regarding BLEES but Chambers has “to be thankful for” as one of the definitions. Thanks both.

16. I also wondered if there was a (not so) SUBTLE dig at some commenters, in the clue for DEFAMATION.

17. Dr+ @10: You make a nice point. “Bless the Lord for these gifts” clearly expresses gratitude but the word “bless” here desires the Lord him(or her)self to be blessed for what has been given. However, one could smoothly exchange the words to become, “Thank the Lord for these gifts”.

    Hmm?

18. [NeilH @4 Yes, Bobby Fischer was most annoying. I once sat opposite him for breakfast in a greasy spoon with a chequered tablecloth. It took him half an hour to pass me the salt.]

19. First in and favourite was JURORS. Took a while to work out that FURROW wasn’t BURROW (and why) and to sort out UNWEANED. Thanks Matilda for an enjoyable crossword.

20. MB @5: I don’t think it’s a spoiler to observe that PERI-PERI isn’t the first time in recent days that we’ve seen the same word appear twice in a puzzle – albeit today’s is a more straightforward repetition. Whilst walking the dog earlier I was musing on whether it would be enjoyable or not to encounter a puzzle where all the solutions were double words (Major Major, Humbert Humbert, Peri-peri, Boom boom etc). I guess, if they were clued individually and the doubles were the theme it could be fun. Alternatively, if clued as doubles, solvers might feel cheated out of half their challenge.

    A lovely puzzle from Matilda, quirky in places but over too soon. Like William, I enjoyed the BURQA/BIKINI combo and it’s nice to find a Q without a U occasionally. I have a deja vu feeling about DISCOMBOBULATED for some reason but I think it’s been used as an anagrind rather than a solution in recent times.

    Thanks Matilda and Eileen

21. Yes, gentle fun. I Dr+Whatson@10’s quibble re the equivalence of be grateful and bless is fair, though I can imagine a grateful response being “bless you for that”.
    Discombobulated is one of my fav words, it feels onomatopoeic to me. In addition it is one of those antonyms for whivh the positive doesn’t seem to exist: anyone feeling combobulated?
    Thanks to Matilda and Eileen

22. [Penfold@18 I believe he was lazy at crosswords, though. He kept using the check button]

23. Yes, lovely start to the day. I had to guess COSMIC as Marvel only meant powdered milk to me! I wrote the letters for the 5d anagram in a circle and DISCOMBOBULATION just jumped out. Thanks Matilda and Eileen

24. I always enjoy Matilda’s style and today was no exception, although I felt the clues for DRAWBACK and ADJACENT weren’t fully fleshed out.

    DISCOMBOBULATED is such a lovely, Blackadderish word that it’s always guaranteed to raise a smile. Thought WATERCOLOURS was a lot of fun, too.

    Thanks Eileen and Matilda.

25. William @17, yes, or just either Bless you or Thank you, said in gratitude.

26. Penfold @18: 🙂

27. Did he pick up the cheque mate?

28. Well that was nice. Good surfaces, a wide variety of techniques, and a mini-theme to boot. Over a bit quickly but never mind. Though isn’t Gravesend an S for the end of Graves rather than an E?

29. Really enjoyed this, and loved DISCOMBOBULATED and WATERCOLOURS. Matilda really does provide some lovely surfaces.

30. Trailman @26: works if seen as Grave’s end?

31. ‘Bless’ has several different meanings – see Chambers – ‘to be thankful for’ being one of them. In the liturgy, the response to ‘Let us bless the Lord’ is ‘Thanks be to God’.
    See here.

    A few weeks ago, a friend told me that DISCOMBOBULATED was a Ken Dodd invention (which seemed feasible) but we were out on a walk and I forgot to look it up when I got home. Most sources say the origin is unknown. Collins suggests ‘[c20 – prob. a whimsical alteration of DISCOMPOSEor DISCOMFIT’].

32. Eileen @31 Doddy was discomknockerated.

33. I agree with a lovely straightforward crossword with such a splendid word in the middle

    Thanks to Matilda and Eileen

34. 5d Discombobulated was a word used a lot by Ken Dodd in relation to his diddy men, I had always assumed that it was one he had made up.

35. A very enjoyable puzzle. My favourite was 20a WATERCOLOURS which was great.

    Re 18a: NULL and void is one of those nice expressions where the two elements seem to mean the same as each other.

    (Isn’t OGRESS in 9a contrary to the Guardian’s style guide? A female ogre is just as qualified at ogring as a male ogre and arguably should not be distinguished.)

    Many thanks Matilda and Eileen.

36. Lord Jim @35 – Re ogres and ogresses: Mystogre (the setter) might have a view.

37. FOI was 2dn OARS as I happen to read that clue first. Then (as I try to solve in a certain manner), I got its symmetrical slot 22dn PERI-PERI which, of course, is combined with 11ac. Then 18ac NULL fell easily. Having done with four-letter words, I moved on to five-letter words . Solved 21dn EL;ITE and 7dn BURQA. The first six-letter word that I solved was 23a BIKINI as I was led to it by the def for 7dn.
    I won’t bore you further. about the progression.
    The solved ones were a first-letter acrostic, a double anagram, a reverse telescopic, a telescopic, a charade and another charade.

    Loved

38. Hope you’re being facetious Lord Jim, otherwise no more princesses.

39. @boffo: Indeed that 15 letter word was used in the classic Blackadder v Dr Johnson (Robbie Coltrane) encounter… Having said that I’ll need to confirm via You Tube.
    The verb version was used in a Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jnr) movie a few years back…

40. 14a: I’d read it as “bone less” as in “bone to pick with you…”
    On looking up the definition of “bone” as a verb, well I’m shocked to say the least… ?

41. Pedro @38, I was being a bit flippant, but the thought was partly sparked by an interview in Tuesday’s Guardian with Miriam Margolyes and Vanessa Redgrave which included the following.

    VR: “By the way, Guardian, could you stop calling actresses ‘actors’?”
    MM: “Yes, I’m an actress! On my passport I’m an actress.”

    There are a couple of letters in today’s paper expressing the opposite view. It’s interesting that although the Guardian style guide disapproves of “actress”, the word does quite often crop up in the crossword.

    (By the way, before I posted, my saved username had changed to Lord+Jim, and I changed it back. I see that Dr. WhatsOn @10 has become Dr.+WhatsOn.)

42. I thoroughly enjoyed this none too taxing puzzle – and had the same experience as Shirl@2 with 17 my loi. It would be great to see more of Matilda – thanks to her (I assume) and Eileen.

43. Lord Jim @35: if all distinction between genders is to be cancelled, why is the (hitherto) male variant always chosen? If Marilyn Monroe is an actor, why isn’t John Wayne an actress??

44. Thanks Matilda and Eileen.
    I enjoyed this so much with DRAWBACK a clear favourite, cleverly hiding as it did the first letter of the 15-letterer. Just the way I like it – a frenzied trawl followed by a mild feeling of panic before the first clue falls, a slow acceleration, a grinding to a halt with much pencil-sucking, a pdm, another and a canter to the finish where I stared at WEE BIT for too long and another victory – yay.
    I didn’t get DISCOMBOBULATED without nearly all the crossers and that probably added to the enjoyment, while getting it early conceivably diluted the experience for others.
    That being said BIKINI and WEE BIT were the type of two-phase clue that I am wary of, requiring the solving of an element (BIKINg and BEE) and then manipulation – so these were more bif and parse, a less satisfactory process.
    As to BIKINI, one wouldn’t want to dwell on that atoll at all.

45. [gladys @43 Marion Morrison, the Duchess, Hen Cogburn?]

46. I thought this was terrific throughout, especially the wonderful JURORS. Last two in the interlocking FURROW and WEE BIT, but many thanks to Mathilda this morning for brightening up my day…

47. Forgive me if this info has been posted already – I can’t find evidence that it has. I have just received this week’s New Statesman, and can recommend the crossword to any Guardian solver, for reasons that will be clear as soon as you get into it. Celebration of a centenary coming up on Tuesday. I don’t know the identity of their regular setter, Anorak: perhaps he has a Guardian persona as well?

48. Lord Jim, gladys et al. It is interesting that in Poland the feminist demand is for more specifically feminine gendered role descriptors, because the standard word for them is masculine. French and German, too, struggle to find gender-neutral ways of talking about jobs.

49. Lord Jim @41 I can’t persuade the system to save my name at all. It used to work some months ago.

50. A very enjoyable puzzle, thank you Matilda and Eileen. BIKINI/BURQA was fun!

    In France they are trying to feminise more nouns, it makes much more sense, masculinising them is degrading for women.

    ” L’Académie française s’est prononcée en faveur d’une ouverture à la féminisation des noms de métiers, de fonctions, de titres et de grades. Approuvé à une très large majorité, seules deux voix se sont élevées contre.”

51. My first guess proved correct a number of times, but this is not a complaint; ‘no oil painting’ raised a smile, as did the under- and overdressed pair. On the other hand, several answers could be constructed from the wordplay, so this was an enjoyable solve – and pitched at the right level for my slightly dull brain this week.

    Is carlessly a word? Surely ‘without wheels’ is just carless. Doesn’t the clue require at least a question mark, or some word play for the final two letters?

    Thanks to Matilda and Eileen.

    [There was a + in my saved user name too.]

52. Julia @49
    Clearing your browser’s cache/history should resolve this problem.

53. (Julia@49. My name is not saved on Firefox despite the settings being correctly configured, but is on Chrome and on MS Edge. Which is a shame as I otherwise prefer Firefox!)

54. Surprised nobody’s queried ‘carlessly’ as a descriptor for my mode of daily exercise. Now it’s accepted I plan to use it. Thanks Matilda and Eileen.

55. Hi sheffield hatter @51 – Ha, of course there’s no such word as carlessly but that’s OK, since it’s part of the wordplay, not the solution. ‘Without wheels’ can be an adverbial, as well as adjectival phrase: ‘We toured Gravesend carlessly’ = ‘We toured Gravesend without wheels’.

56. Apologies, Oofyprosser – I missed your comment.

57. hatter @51: if carlessly isn’t a word, it surely deserves to be one. One can travel without wheels but it doesn’t sound right to say one can travel carless. If carless is the adjective, wouldn’t carlessly be the adverb? And that would open the door to such as leglessly, shirtlessly, cashlessly and others… I’d have probably bunged in a question mark to cover my back.

    [Alphalpha @44: Boom boom! Pressing the button on that must’ve been atoll order.]

58. Eileen @55. I agree with what you say, but as when Paul invents a new adjective, surely it would be fair for Matilda to stick a question mark on the end of the clue? (Mark @57 seems to agree.) This is only a minor quibble, because the clue was easily solvable – and enjoyably witty, too.

59. [PostMark@ 57: Well, we don’t have to wait for the fallout from that pun, do we…]

60. Have been catching up all week – work got in the way. loved this – especially JURORS and BURQA/BIKINI plus the Ken Doddism. Really enjoyed yesterday’s too, especially the Top Cat memories. Will be trying Nutmeg next – the comments yesterday are intriguing, but shall not cheat by reading the blog for it, though sorely tempted. Thanks to Matilda and Eileen.
    [Penfold@18 – would love the full story if you have time to put it in the GD]

61. [MB @59: If you’re fission for compliments, I wouldn’t start with that one! (Or mine for that matter 😀 )]

62. For those in need of the amusement afforded by observing the development of modern mores this is ripe, especially how the BIKINI got its name.
    [If I could, I would change that “well”@44 to “dwell”]

63. I’ve done it for you, Alphalpha.

64. [Eileen @63: oh so THAT’S how post-post edits happen!]

65. Lord Jim @41 I hadn’t noticed that my nom-de-225 as shown in the browser below the comments box had got infected by the “+”, so thanks for that. I’ve fixed it, and we’ll see what happens. I do know that if you program a web-server backend you have to be very careful about encoding/decoding text strings, so Gaufrid has my sympathies if there is an occasional glitch.

66. [PaulineinBrum @60 No story, I’m afraid.
    Just a joke about how it would take a chess player many moves to get the salt cellar from one side of the table to the other across a chequered tablecloth.]

67. [Penfold @66: another fischer for compliments? I did smile at that image @18. And Pauline’s question’s not that out of place: as others regularly note, the folk on this site have experienced a lot and it wouldn’t have surprised me if you turned out to be a grand master who regularly dined with the greats of the game. I hope you weren’t eating soft pawns.]

68. [PostMark @67 Fischer for condiments actually.

    The thought of me being a grand master made me chuckle, although I did get a job working shifts on a human chess board. I’m on knights this week.]

69. Three in the SE – FURROW, LANDSCAPE and WEE BIT – took me longer than the rest of the puzzle put together. All good clues, but shouldn’t ‘fox or rabbit’ for FUR have a ‘?’ or something to indicate definition by example? Or does the ‘or’ suffice?

    The bless/be grateful for discussion gives me another excuse to post a link to Ray Davies at Glastonbury.

    [Barobalti @40: you’ve reminded me of one of my mondegreens, here. For years I was really quite shocked (a) that Bobbie Gentry had sung it, and (b) that the BBC kept on allowing it to be broadcast!]

    Thanks Matilda and Eileen.

70. essexboy @69. I’m in favour of question marks when necessary (see #51&58), but didn’t feel the need for one in the clue for FURROW, though maybe that’s because I already had the crossing U.

    [Dreadful Mondegreen, btw. I didn’t hear anything wrong with Bobby Gentry’s enunciation, but maybe you were distracted by trying to count how many pairs of false eyelashes she was wearing?]

71. [sh: I’m always distracted by BG 😉 ]

72. Thanks Eileen, and everyone above, for filling in a few gaps for me, working through my mini-quibbles and some enjoyable discussion, but I still want to go on record to agree with AlanC@16 and thanks for your suggestion @30 as i was previously aligned with trailman@28: first time I have seen wordplay requiring punctuation to be inserted I think.
    Completely unscientifically I would rank this as the crossword which has generated the least divergent yet positive opinions of any whose blog I have read here (favourites, fun words, tricky finish in SE). Thanks Matilda, my own vote for best clue is MIGRATION for reminding me of Top Trumps fighter planes and the endless playground arguments over Foxbat vs Tornado etc.

73. To paraphrase what Eileen once said, a crossword need not be difficult to be good. Thanks Matilda, this hit the spot for me. In addition to 5d, I liked DRAWBACK, PROGRESS, JURORS (my 1st thought was donuts but that led nowhere), and WEE BIT. Thanks Eileen for the blog.

74. 23 Across.
    BIKINI.
    Why is Matilda . . . . I ?

75. Chris Lan @74
    Because she is the compiler…

76. Thanks Gazzh @72, I was surprised it wasn’t highlighted by others. Maybe I read too much into it?

77. Thanks Gaufried, I’ll try it now.

78. It didn’t work!

79. Just tried again

80. No luck

81. I found this the hardest of the week, no idea why. Could understand few of the answers, I just didn’t understand the clues today.

82. [Julia @77 etc.
    I had this problem a few weeks back. I tried clearing a few things, but it didn’t work. You have to clear all of your online history, as I remember – a bit irritating, but you can bookmark frequently used sites.]

83. [PostMark @61: Honestly – uranium on my parade now…]

84. Yep, light and breezy. I liked LANDSCAPE very much. Always enjoy those [front]AND[back] constructions. I was another misled into looking for an S to be incorporated in the CARELESSLY clue. I like the ambiguity of the device.
    I first encountered Piri-Piri chicken spelt that way on a menu in Portugal. In the US, the sauce I buy is spelt Peri-Peri.

    Thanks, Matilda and Eileen.

    Interesting observations re: gender neutralisation of professional words having unintended consequences. Perhaps the Guardian’s female editor should have a rethink about the style guide.

85. [quenbarrow @57: I don’t think anyone’s responded to your post yet. Is the New Statesman crossword online? I haven’t found one that’s dated currently but am intrigued by your observation. In response to your query about Anorak, this might be helpful.]

86. [Apologies – quenbarrow @47]

87. PostMark @85 and quenbarrow@47 – to whom I didn’t respond – I’m as sure as I can be that I know what you’re referring to and would beg you to say no more and let’s just wait and see – please!

88. Thanks Eileen. I have absolutely no idea so worry not on my account. Nothing I could say, even if I wanted to. I’m just intrigued by the earlier post. I’m not sure my local garage stocks the New Statesman so can’t see how I’ll get a hold of it. I shall wait and see but don’t know where to look!

89. Eileen@63: thank you kindly. Bless.
    @87: I’m intrigued now…
    [essexboy@69: does that qualify as a mondegreen? In the ear of the beholder perhaps. For my own part I’m astonished at Ms Gentry’s grasp of rhyming slang and of course the BBC would have recognised her homage to Cockney, and therefore UKish, heritage.]

90. [Thanks to Penfold@66 for the clarification – I had not heard the joke before and it made me laugh. Also thanks to PostMark@67 for confirming it wasn’t an entirely stupid question. It is quite right to say that I imagine the contributors to this website to be rubbing shoulders with the intelligentsia on a regular basis, but maybe not in greasy spoons. Penfold@68 – Ha! Ha! – am trying to remove the rogue + from my name now.]

91. This was easily one of the most enjoyable puzzles I’ve solved in a while – so many clever and amusing surfaces! Thanks to Matilda and Eileen.

92. [Alphalpha @89: 🙂 Bobbie is indeed astonishing… though I once caned her at chess.]

93. [essexboy @92. She’ll have been greatly inconvenienced by those eyelashes, I would guess.]

    [Alphalpha @89. Mondegreens are all about the ear of the beholder. Though I believe that once the general mishearing of “there’s a bad moon on the rise” had caught on, John Fogerty actually used the alternative “there’s a bathroom on the right” in some concert performances.]

94. No-one seems to have agreed with me that “Tweets crazy speech” would have been as good, if not beter, for 4d!

95. Sorry muffin @94, I got distracted. I’m not much of a twitterato, but can you ‘tweet’ a whole speech?

96. Lovely clues, Matilda. I really enjoyed the wit and the economy of words for some of them. I haven’t laughed out loud with delight at getting a Guardian crossword clue for a long time but this did it several times. Please keep them coming.

97. essexboy @95. You can embed a video of a speech in a tweet, so I think muffin’s version of the clue is a good one!

98. essexboy @95
    Yes, if it’s a short one! Anyway, “leading to” doesn’t avoid that problem.
    I remember the story of the photographer setting up his camera to record Lincoln’s Gettysburg address, but not being ready before Lincoln had finished, as the speech was far shorter than he was normal at the time.

99. PM@88
    Decades ago I used to get a photocopy of the New Statesman crossword occasionally at the British Council library here in Chennai (Madras) and solve it (the Times puzzle would have been filled in by some guy at management level!)
    Then the setter was Set Square,
    It is many years since .I went to the library, which no longer gets books or publications like in tho period when I was a student.

100. Muffin yesterday.
     In response to your 56 I came up with another suggestion as to the origin of derby match at 81.
     Everton and Liverpool’s grounds are separated by the Earl of Derby’s estate, Stanley Park, and may for all I know have been part of it. Sorry for the late post again.

101. Fun puzzle, almost Quiptic-like.
     Favourites: DISCOMBOBULATED, DRAWBACK, LANDSCAPE, DEFAMATION, CARELESSLY .

     Thanks, Matilda and Eileen.

102. Hi Muffin,
     I think the clue’s surface is beautifully topical, befitting of a newspaper?

103. Just trying on a site that nobody is looking at any more

104. @essexboy… Funny as… I think the BG misheard lyric was included in a brilliant live sketch by Peter Kay…Worth looking up!
     And thanks: Never heard “mondegreen” before… But there are many out there, worthy of a forum in its own right?
     For one, I give you “Spare him his life from these pork sausages” (Queen)

105. Aha, but the blogger’s always still looking 😉 . (We get emails of all comments on our blogs.)

     I hope you problem is sorted, Julia.

     Barobalti @104, if you’re still there – a couple of years ago, Philistine themed a puzzle on mondegreens

     https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/lookup?crossword_type=prize&id=27788

     http://www.fifteensquared.net/2019/04/13/guardian-prize-27788-by-philistine/

106. Sorry about this Eileen! Just trying again having had detailed instructions from Gaufrid on how to clear everything.

107. It worked!!!

108. Bingo! Congratulations. 😉

109. Barobalti@104, Eileen@105
     I like to imagine The Hollies singing the Berlin Philharmonic’s signature tune, “Hey, Karajan what’s your game now? Can anybody play?”

110. I’ve called the hot sauce PIRI=PIRI.

     5d DISCOMBOBULATE There’s a handful of these playful fake-Latin words from the nineteenth century United States — “absquatulate” is another, meaning something like “decamp,” — I always enjoy them.

     Thank you for parsing CARELESSLY, Eileen. And PostMark @57, I think you can travel carless, just as you can travel naked or unprepared or despairing. It depends on whether you want to describe yourself or how you travel.

111. This crosword inspired me to set my own first cryptic crossword, so thanks, Matilda, for the inspiration.

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